Terms of Use

The Strange Game

The Strange Game is a home for Ellis Cohen’s original music — an artistic, experimental place to listen, wander, and sometimes play.

The Strange Game is operated by Ellis Cohen. It is not a conventional software subscription, and it is not primarily an AI-generation service.

Using the site

You may visit, listen, read, and play the public parts of the site without creating an account.

Some features, including buying Studio Credits, ask you to sign in with your email. By using those features you agree to these Terms.

Age and paid features

Visitors of any age may use the ordinary public music and game experience, subject to these Terms and applicable law.

Buying Studio Credits and using paid AI interpretation is for people 18 or older. If you buy Studio Credits, you represent that you are at least 18.

Studio Credits

Studio Credits are The Strange Game’s own units. They are not cash, not Mureka units, and not Pointless Points.

$5.00 currently purchases 5 Studio Credits. One Studio Credit currently purchases one AI interpretation of a Strange Game original.

Studio Credits cannot be transferred or sold. Pointless Points have no monetary value and cannot buy interpretations.

AI interpretations

An AI interpretation is a generated musical reading of a Strange Game catalogue original. You choose an original and may choose a world or write a short direction. The site does not currently accept uploaded songs.

Paid generation is not enabled on the live service yet. When it is, one paid interpretation is meant to produce one delivered result, and interpretations are meant to stay private to the purchasing account unless you later choose to share one.

Ellis Cohen / Strange Game originals

All rights in Ellis Cohen / The Strange Game original songs remain with their existing rights holders.

Buying Studio Credits or receiving an interpretation does not give you ownership of the underlying composition, lyrics, original recording, song title, or other Strange Game material. An interpretation does not replace the original, and it does not become the original.

Personal non-commercial interpretation license

If you receive an AI interpretation, you receive a limited personal, non-commercial license to use that delivered file.

You may listen to it, keep or download it where the product permits, replay it, share it privately, and share it socially on a non-commercial basis.

You may not, without separate written permission, sell it; commercially release, distribute, monetize, license, or sublicense it; register the underlying composition as your own; present Ellis Cohen / The Strange Game’s song, lyrics, composition, or original recording as your own; or use the interpretation in a way that implies you own the underlying work.

This is a license to use the delivered interpretation. It is not a statement that you own the AI output, and it is not a statement that Ellis Cohen owns all AI output.

AI variability

AI interpretations vary. The Strange Game does not promise that a result will be unique, that lyrics will be preserved exactly, that a particular style will land, that there will be no artifacts or unexpected similarities, or that you will like it.

“Stay close to Ellis’s lyrics” is an instruction to the system, not a guarantee of verbatim lyrics.

Failed generations

If The Strange Game fails to deliver the requested interpretation because of a system or upstream failure, you should not lose that Studio Credit.

The accounting for that rule will be built before paid generation is turned on. This section states the intended customer rule.

Completed generations

If the system successfully delivers the requested interpretation, that one Studio Credit is used. Disliking the artistic result does not automatically return the credit.

This does not take away rights you may have under applicable law.

Unused Studio Credits

Unused Studio Credits stay with your account. They do not expire unless a later published change says otherwise.

They are not ordinarily redeemable for cash merely because they remain unused, except where applicable law requires otherwise.

Directions you submit

You may offer a short creative direction or instruction. You must have the right to submit any text or other material you provide.

Do not submit material you are not allowed to use, and do not use the direction field to ask for anything unlawful or harmful.

Acceptable use

Use the site in a way that does not harm the service, other visitors, or the music.

Do not attempt to disrupt the site, misuse another person’s account, scrape or overload the service, or use paid features to generate content you intend to sell or commercially exploit without permission.

Availability and changes

The Strange Game may change, pause, or end features as the world is built. Accounts, Studio Credits, and generation may not always be available.

If these Terms change in a material way, the updated date at the top of this page will change. Continued use of paid features after an update means you accept the revised Terms.

Limits

The site and any AI interpretation are provided as they are. The Strange Game does not warrant uninterrupted access, error-free generation, or a particular artistic outcome.

To the extent permitted by applicable law, Ellis Cohen and The Strange Game are not liable for indirect or consequential losses, or for the artistic character of a generated interpretation.

Your legal rights

Nothing in these Terms is meant to limit rights that applicable law does not allow to be limited. If a court finds a part of these Terms unenforceable, the rest still applies.

Contact

Questions about these Terms: ellis@thestrangegame.com.