JoyRemote license agreement

This is the same agreement shown when you install JoyRemote. A copy is installed alongside it.

Please read this before you install. Installing JoyRemote changes what this computer can do: it makes it possible for a person at another computer, phone or browser to watch this screen and to move this mouse and type on this keyboard. Section 3 explains what that means and what you are taking on by allowing it.

By ticking "I have read and accept the license agreement" and continuing, you agree to this agreement on your own behalf and on behalf of any organisation for which you are installing this software. If you do not agree, close this window and do not install.

1. Who this agreement is with

"We", "us" and "the Publisher" mean Tiny Thoughts LTD, company number 513868273, the publisher of JoyRemote. "You" means the person installing or using the software, and any organisation on whose computers you install it. "JoyRemote" or "the Software" means the JoyRemote application, its host service, its helper service, the pages it serves to a browser, and any update or documentation supplied with it.

2. What JoyRemote is

JoyRemote is remote-desktop software. One computer (the host) shows its screen to another computer, phone or browser (the viewer) and accepts that viewer's keyboard and mouse input. It is built for computers on your own local network, and it can also reach a computer over the internet through our directory server, described in section 12, or through one that you or your organisation operate.

3. Security warning - the risk you are accepting

READ THIS SECTION. IT IS THE MOST IMPORTANT PART OF THIS AGREEMENT.

3.1 Remote control means real control. While a session is open, the person at the other end can do anything you could do sitting at this computer: read anything on the screen, open any file this account can open, type, click, install and delete software, sign in to websites where the browser is already signed in, and - if the "Ctrl+Alt+Del and Windows permission prompts" component is installed - answer Windows permission prompts (User Account Control) and act as an administrator of this computer.

3.2 Installing JoyRemote makes this computer reachable. Once it is installed and running, this computer listens for connection attempts. JoyRemote will ask a person at this keyboard to approve a connection before it starts, and remembers the computers you tell it to remember - but a computer that listens is a computer that can be reached, and a computer that can be controlled remotely can be controlled by the wrong person. THAT IS A RISK, AND BY INSTALLING THIS SOFTWARE YOU ACCEPT IT.

3.3 The approval is yours to give and yours to get wrong. The most common way remote-control software causes harm is not a broken lock: it is somebody being persuaded to open the door. A caller claiming to be from your bank, a payment service, a delivery company, a software company, the tax authority, the police, or a computer support service asks you to install remote-control software and approve their connection, and then uses your own computer, in front of you, to move money, read your mail, or install something that stays behind. NO SOFTWARE CAN PREVENT THIS. If you did not start the contact yourself, and you do not personally know the person asking, do not approve the connection. We will never telephone you, and we will never ask you for a connection or for any code shown on your screen.

3.4 Unattended access widens that risk. If you install the component that keeps this computer reachable after a restart, or tell JoyRemote to let an approved computer or phone in without asking again, then this computer can be reached when nobody is sitting at it and nobody is asked. That is a convenience you are choosing, and the consequences of choosing it are yours.

3.5 This computer's security is your responsibility, not ours. What happens on and to this computer - who you allow in, who has physical access to it, how strong its Windows account passwords are, whether its operating system and its other software are patched, what is already running on it - is outside our control and outside our knowledge. WE ARE NOT RESPONSIBLE, AND WE ACCEPT NO LIABILITY, FOR ANY UNAUTHORISED ACCESS TO, ATTACK ON, INTRUSION INTO, MISUSE OF, DAMAGE TO, OR LOSS OF OR DAMAGE TO DATA ON, ANY COMPUTER ON WHICH THIS SOFTWARE IS INSTALLED OR WHICH IT IS USED TO REACH, WHETHER THAT ACCESS WAS APPROVED BY YOU, OBTAINED BY DECEIVING YOU, OR OBTAINED IN ANY OTHER WAY. You confirm that you understand this and that you are installing the Software anyway, with that risk in mind.

3.6 Do not use JoyRemote where a failure or an intrusion would be dangerous. It is not designed or licensed for use in the operation of medical devices, aircraft, vehicles, weapons, industrial control, emergency services, or any other system in which failure could lead to death, personal injury, or serious physical or environmental damage.

4. Encryption, and what it does not cover

4.1 What is encrypted. A session between two computers running JoyRemote is carried inside TLS 1.3 on a local network, and inside QUIC (which is also TLS 1.3) when it travels over the internet. The screen, the keyboard and mouse input, the clipboard, transferred files and audio all travel inside that encryption, and each end proves its identity with a device key that only it holds.

4.2 What is not. When you turn on access from a phone or a browser on your own network, this computer serves that browser an ordinary web page over plain, UNENCRYPTED HTTP, because a browser on a home network has no certificate it can be given. The picture and the input that follow are carried by WebRTC and are themselves encrypted, but the page, the address, the connection request and the pairing secret at the moment it is first issued are not. ANYBODY ELSE ON THE SAME WI-FI OR THE SAME WIRED NETWORK MAY BE ABLE TO READ, RECORD OR ALTER WHAT IS NOT ENCRYPTED. Use the phone and browser feature only on a network you control and trust. Do not use it on public, guest, shared, hotel, cafe or conference Wi-Fi.

4.3 Encryption is not a guarantee. No encryption protects a computer that is already compromised, an account whose password somebody else knows, a screen somebody can see, or a session you approved for the wrong person. Methods of attack change. WE DO NOT WARRANT THAT THE SOFTWARE'S ENCRYPTION OR AUTHENTICATION CANNOT BE BROKEN, CIRCUMVENTED OR WEAKENED, AND WE ACCEPT NO LIABILITY IF IT IS.

5. License

5.1 We grant you a personal, non-exclusive, non-transferable, revocable license to install and use the Software on computers you own or are authorised to administer, for as long as you comply with this agreement. The Software itself is free of charge, and computers on your own network reach each other free of charge for as long as you use it. Section 13 explains the one thing that is paid for and what happens if you do not pay for it.

5.2 You may not: sell, rent, sub-license or distribute the Software as your own; remove or alter any notice of ownership; reverse engineer, decompile or disassemble it except where law expressly allows you to do so despite this clause; use it to reach any computer without the informed permission of the person or organisation entitled to give it; use it in furtherance of fraud, harassment, stalking, unauthorised surveillance, or any other criminal or unlawful act; or offer it to other people in a way that disguises what it is or what it does.

5.3 YOU MUST NOT USE JOYREMOTE TO REACH A COMPUTER BELONGING TO SOMEBODY WHO HAS NOT KNOWINGLY AGREED TO IT. Installing it on somebody else's computer, or persuading somebody to install it so that you can take control, may be a criminal offence in your country and in theirs.

6. What you are responsible for

You are responsible for: deciding whether to install the Software at all; which optional components you install; who you approve, who you remember, and who you block; keeping the list of remembered computers and phones current and removing any device you no longer control; the security, patching and backup of every computer you install it on; complying with the law where you are and where the other computer is, including data-protection law if what is on the screen concerns other people; and telling anybody else who uses those computers that the Software is installed on them.

7. No warranty

THE SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED "AS IS" AND "AS AVAILABLE", WITH ALL FAULTS. TO THE FULLEST EXTENT PERMITTED BY LAW, WE DISCLAIM ALL WARRANTIES AND CONDITIONS OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS, IMPLIED OR STATUTORY, INCLUDING ANY WARRANTY OF MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE, TITLE, NON-INFRINGEMENT, ACCURACY, AND ANY WARRANTY THAT THE SOFTWARE WILL BE UNINTERRUPTED, TIMELY, SECURE, FREE OF DEFECTS OR ERROR-FREE, OR THAT ANY DEFECT WILL BE CORRECTED. No advice or information, spoken or written, obtained from us or from anywhere else, creates any warranty not stated here.

8. Limit of liability

8.1 TO THE FULLEST EXTENT PERMITTED BY LAW, WE WILL NOT BE LIABLE FOR ANY INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL, SPECIAL, CONSEQUENTIAL, PUNITIVE OR EXEMPLARY DAMAGES, OR FOR ANY LOSS OF PROFIT, REVENUE, BUSINESS, GOODWILL, USE, DATA, PRIVACY OR REPUTATION, OR FOR THE COST OF SUBSTITUTE SERVICES, ARISING OUT OF OR CONNECTED WITH THE SOFTWARE OR THIS AGREEMENT, ON ANY THEORY OF LIABILITY, EVEN IF WE HAVE BEEN TOLD THAT SUCH DAMAGE IS POSSIBLE.

8.2 WITHOUT LIMITING CLAUSE 8.1, WE WILL NOT BE LIABLE FOR ANY LOSS OR DAMAGE ARISING FROM: UNAUTHORISED ACCESS TO OR CONTROL OF ANY COMPUTER; ANY ACT OF ANY PERSON WHO OBTAINED A CONNECTION, INCLUDING A PERSON WHO OBTAINED IT BY DECEIVING YOU OR ANYBODY ELSE AT YOUR KEYBOARD; ANY INTERCEPTION, RECORDING OR ALTERATION OF INFORMATION IN TRANSIT; ANY MALWARE, RANSOMWARE OR OTHER HARMFUL CODE PLACED ON A COMPUTER; ANY FRAUD OR THEFT COMMITTED THROUGH A SESSION; OR THE LOSS, DISCLOSURE OR CORRUPTION OF ANY DATA.

8.3 Where any liability of ours cannot be excluded, our total liability for all claims arising out of or connected with the Software and this agreement is limited to the greater of the amount you actually paid us for the Software in the twelve months before the event giving rise to the claim, or USD 50.

8.4 Nothing in this agreement, including section 3, excludes or limits any liability that cannot lawfully be excluded or limited, including liability for death or personal injury caused by negligence, for fraud or fraudulent misrepresentation, for gross negligence, for wilful misconduct, for a violation of law, or for anything else that the law of the country or state where you live does not permit to be excluded. If you are a consumer, you may have rights under the consumer law of the country or state where you live that this agreement cannot take away, and nothing here affects them.

9. Indemnity

To the extent the law allows, you will defend, indemnify and hold us harmless against any claim, demand, loss, liability, cost or expense (including reasonable legal fees) brought by a third party and arising out of your breach of this agreement, your breach of any law or of anybody's rights, or your use of the Software to reach a computer or data without the permission of the person entitled to give it. This does not apply to a claim caused by our own breach of this agreement, negligence or misconduct.

10. Components from other people

The Software includes open-source components supplied by their authors under their own licenses. Those licenses continue to apply to those components, and where one of them gives you a right that this agreement does not, that right prevails for that component. The notices are installed alongside the Software.

11. Information

The Software runs on your computers. Sessions go directly between your devices where the network allows it. A local log of connection requests is kept on the host computer, for you. If you or your organisation configure a directory server, that server sees the information needed to introduce two computers to each other, such as device identifiers and network addresses, and is operated by whoever runs it under their own terms - if that is not us, it is not our responsibility. Where that server is ours, it also counts recent requests against the network address they came from, in order to apply the limits in clause 12.4, and it counts the time each computer spends reaching other computers over the internet, in order to apply section 13. Section 12 governs your use of it, and the privacy notice at joyremote.com/privacy describes what it keeps and for how long.

If you pay for anything under section 13, what travels to the payment provider is a random reference that means nothing without our records. Your computer's identity does not go with it. What comes back is that the reference was paid, together with the provider's own identifiers for the transaction and the customer, which we keep so that refunds can be matched to payments. We do not receive your card details.

12. The directory service

12.1 What it does. A directory server gives each computer a number and introduces two computers that want to reach each other across the internet. JoyRemote does not need one. On a local network it works with no server at all, and the number it gives itself there is its own.

12.2 Whose server this is. This section applies to a directory server operated by us. If you, your organisation or anybody else operates one, it is theirs and it runs under their terms, and section 11 applies to it instead of this section.

12.3 What a number is for. You may ask our directory for a number for each computer you own or are authorised to administer, and for no other purpose. You must not: obtain numbers by automated or bulk means; obtain numbers that no real computer is going to use; take steps to defeat a limit, a check or a delay we apply, including by making one computer appear to be several; sell, transfer or offer numbers to other people; or use the service in a way that disrupts it or anybody else's use of it.

12.4 What we may do. We may set and change limits on how often and how many numbers may be given to an installation, an account or a network address. We may refuse a request, withdraw a number, or block an installation where we reasonably believe this section is being broken - and we will lift a block if the reason for it turns out to be wrong. We may reclaim a number that has gone unused for a long period, so that numbers belonging to computers that no longer exist do not stay issued for ever.

12.5 It is not promised. The directory is provided as it is, with no promise that it will be available, that a number will keep working, or that any connection through it will succeed. We may change it, limit it, or stop operating it at any time - subject to clause 13.10, which says what happens to money you have paid if we do. If it is unavailable, your computers still reach each other on their own local network. Clauses 7 and 8 apply to it in full.

12.6 Most of it is free. One and a half hours of reaching computers over the internet, and the first fifteen minutes of the relay, cost nothing. Section 13 covers the rest.

13. What it costs

13.1 Almost all of this is free, for ever. Installing JoyRemote is free. Using it between computers on your own network is free, is not counted towards anything in this section, and always will be. Every feature the Software has today works on your own network without payment. If that is all you do, nothing else in this section applies to you.

Advanced features added to the Software in the future may cost money, on your own network as well as over the internet. If one does, the features you already have stay free, the price is shown before you are asked to pay it, and nothing is charged without your agreement.

13.2 What is paid for is reaching computers over the internet. That is the part that uses our directory server to introduce two computers, and sometimes our relay to carry the picture between them when your network allows no direct connection. Both cost us money to run, which is the only reason any of this exists.

13.3 What is free of that. The first one and a half hours of reaching computers over the internet, counted across this computer's whole life rather than per month. And the first fifteen minutes of relay.

13.4 What it costs after that. One payment of USD 5 for that computer. It does not renew and you are not charged again for it: paying once is the whole of it. The one thing that can ever charge you again is the automatic purchase of relay time described in 13.14, and that is off unless you turn it on. No card details are held by us at any time. The price at the moment you pay is the price; a later change does not affect what you have already bought.

13.5 What the payment gives you. Two things, for that computer: reaching computers over the internet without the limit of one and a half hours described in 13.7; and no further request for payment for the one and a half hours, for as long as we operate the directory. It does not include relay time. Relay time, if you need it beyond the free fifteen minutes, is USD 5 for five hours, a purchase of its own, available whether or not you have made that payment, bought when you choose to or automatically if you turn on the setting described in 13.14.

13.6 It belongs to one computer. The payment is tied to that computer: to its device key, and to the hardware the Software recognises it by. It is not transferable and does not extend to your other computers, which have their own one and a half free hours. Reinstalling the Software, or reinstalling the operating system on the same hardware, keeps both what that computer has paid for and what it has already used. A computer whose motherboard is replaced is a new computer: it has its own free hours and relay time, and a payment made for the old one does not move to it.

A phone running the JoyRemote app is a computer for the purposes of this section. It has its own one and a half free hours and its own free relay time, pays in the same way, and keeps what it has paid for and used when the app is reinstalled. A phone that is reset to its factory settings is a new phone.

An iPhone is the one exception, and only for the one payment. Made in the JoyRemote app on an iPhone, that payment belongs to the Apple account it was made with, as Apple requires: it applies to each iPhone signed in to that account that asks for it with "Restore purchases", up to ten of them. Relay time bought on an iPhone stays with that iPhone.

13.7 If you do not pay. Not paying is not a breach of this agreement and we will not treat it as one, and your own network is untouched: every feature keeps working on it, apart from any paid feature added later under 13.1. What changes is reaching computers over the internet. Once the one and a half free hours are used, the Software stops doing that until the payment is made: a session over the internet that is open when they run out is ended, and new ones are not started. That includes a session a web browser has with that computer under 13.8. The Software warns you half an hour before the free hours run out and again fifteen minutes before, and warns you two minutes before the free relay time runs out, each time with a way to pay.

13.8 How the time is measured. Time spent reaching computers over the internet, and relay time, are measured by our server, which is the end that provides them. A session is counted from the moment the connection between its two ends is established - not while it is being asked for, approved or set up, so an attempt that never connects costs nothing - until it ends, in steps of up to one minute, so a session may be counted as up to one minute longer than it lasted. Relay time is counted only while the relay is carrying the session. Two devices that reach our server from the same internet address are treated as being on the same network and are not counted. Time on your own network is not measured at all.

Whose time it is. A session started from the JoyRemote application, on a computer or in the JoyRemote app on a phone, counts towards the free hours and relay time of the device it was started from, and a payment for that device covers it. A session started from a web browser counts towards the free hours and relay time of the computer it connects to, because a browser has nothing of its own to count them against. Nobody can spend a computer's time this way without the person at that computer: every such session is approved there, or comes from a browser that was approved there in advance.

13.9 Who you are buying from. On a computer, payment is taken by Paddle.com Market Limited, who are the seller and merchant of record for that purchase: they take the money, account for any sales tax or VAT where you live, and issue your receipt. Their terms govern the payment itself; this agreement governs the Software. You pay on Paddle's own pages in your browser. In the JoyRemote app on a phone installed from Google Play, payment is taken by Google Play, under Google Play's terms, at the same price and with the same effect: Google accounts for any sales tax or VAT and issues the receipt, and a refund we give you for a payment made there is made through Google Play. In the JoyRemote app on an iPhone, payment is taken by Apple through the App Store, under Apple's terms, at the same price and with the same effect: Apple accounts for any sales tax or VAT and issues the receipt. In a copy of the app installed on a phone from our website, payment is taken by Paddle, in your browser, as on a computer. JoyRemote never asks you for card details, never sees them, and could not store them.

13.10 If we stop running the directory. Reaching computers over the internet needs our server, and so does relay time, so both would stop with it; your computers would still reach each other on their own local network. If we permanently stop operating the directory within twelve months of your payment, we will refund it in full on request; after twelve months we will refund any relay time you have bought and not used. Ask us at the address in section 17. This does not apply to a payment made in the JoyRemote app on an iPhone, which only Apple can refund (13.11).

The payment is not for a fixed period, and it is not a promise that the directory will run for any particular length of time: what it buys lasts for the life of the service, not for your life or the life of the computer. Stopping operating the directory includes stopping because the Publisher stops trading, is wound up, or transfers the business to someone who does not continue the service.

13.11 If you change your mind. Write to us within fourteen days of paying and we will refund you in full, without asking why. We will do this even if you have used what you bought, and even where the law would allow us to refuse because a digital purchase has already been delivered.

This refund is available once per customer. A customer is the person or organisation that paid, identified by the email address the payment was made with - not the computer, so somebody with several computers is one customer. After one refund under this clause, later purchases by the same customer are final, except where 13.12 gives you a right to cancel. This limit applies to refunds for changing your mind only. It does not apply to a refund we owe you under 13.10, and it does not reduce any right you have under 13.12.

A payment made in the JoyRemote app on an iPhone can be refunded only by Apple, not by us: ask Apple, at reportaproblem.apple.com. When Apple refunds it, 13.13 applies.

13.12 Your rights under consumer law are not affected. Nothing in this section or this agreement takes away or limits any right you have under the consumer law of the country or state in which you live, including any right to cancel a purchase made at a distance. Where this agreement gives you more than that law requires, the more generous of the two applies.

13.13 What happens if a payment is refunded or reversed. When a payment is refunded or charged back, what it bought stops applying. A one-time payment no longer lifts the limit described in 13.7, unless another one-time payment for the same computer still stands. Relay time that the payment added and that you have not yet used is removed. Relay time already used cannot be returned, and you are not charged for it. Nothing else changes and nothing is deleted.

13.14 Buying relay time automatically, if you ask us to. This is the only thing in the Software that can take money from you while you are not there, and it is off unless you turn it on. It is offered on computers, not in the JoyRemote app on a phone.

You turn it on in the Software, under Settings, in "Hours and payment". Turning it on buys five hours of relay time for USD 5 straight away, in the ordinary way, and asks Paddle to keep your payment method so that it can be used again. You cannot turn it on without making that purchase.

While it is on, five more hours are bought for USD 5 whenever the relay time left on that computer falls below ten minutes. That happens while you are using the Software and without asking you again, because the purpose of the setting is that a session being carried by the relay does not stop in the middle of what you are doing. It happens as often as the relay time runs low. There is no limit on how many times and no date on which it ends: it continues until you turn it off.

Nothing is charged on a date. The arrangement is recorded at Paddle as a subscription, because keeping a payment method is the only thing a subscription is used for here, and its billing period is ten years. A payment taken under that period buys five hours of relay time exactly as any other does, so there is no charge for which you receive nothing.

Paddle issues a receipt for every purchase made this way, as described in 13.9. The Settings page says whether the setting is on and what it will do.

You turn it off in the same place you turned it on. It stops at once and the arrangement at Paddle is cancelled. Relay time you have already bought stays yours: turning it off takes nothing away, and refunds nothing.

A purchase made this way is a purchase under this section like any other. 13.11 applies to it, 13.12 is not affected by it, and 13.13 says what happens if one is refunded or reversed.

14. Age, export and sanctions

You must be 18 or older, or have the consent of a parent or guardian and their agreement to this agreement. You confirm that you are not located in, and will not use or re-export the Software in or to, any country or to any person where doing so is prohibited by applicable export-control or sanctions law.

15. Term, termination and updates

This agreement applies from the moment you install the Software and continues until you stop using it and remove it. It ends immediately if you break it. We may make updates available; installing one means the version of this agreement supplied with it applies from then on. We may stop publishing, supporting or operating any part of the Software at any time.

16. General

This agreement is the whole agreement between us about the Software and replaces anything said before it. If any part of it is held unenforceable, the rest continues in force and the unenforceable part is to be read as narrowly as needed to make it enforceable. Our not enforcing a term is not a waiver of it. You may not assign this agreement; we may assign it as part of a transfer of the Software. This agreement is governed by the laws of the State of California, without regard to its rules on conflicts of laws, and the state and federal courts located in Santa Clara County, California have exclusive jurisdiction - except that if you are a consumer, you may also rely on the mandatory law of the country or state in which you live and bring proceedings in its courts. The United Nations Convention on Contracts for the International Sale of Goods does not apply to this agreement.

17. Contact

info@joyremote.com

Using this website

The agreement above is about the JoyRemote program and the services it uses. This part is about joyremote.com itself.

This website is published by Tiny Thoughts LTD. It is here to tell you what JoyRemote is, what it costs and how to get it. We try to keep it accurate and up to date, but where it and the agreement above differ, the agreement is what applies. What we collect when you visit, and why, is on the privacy page; it sets no cookies of its own (see Cookies).

The text, design and logo are ours. You are welcome to link to any page and to quote it with a link back. Please do not use the site in a way that disrupts it for others - for example by flooding it with automated requests.

Links to other websites, such as Paddle's payment pages, take you to sites we do not control; their own terms apply there.

These website terms are governed by the same law, and the same courts, as the agreement above.