Terms of
Service

Welcome to Padippakam ("we," "our," or "us") — a digital library dedicated to the preservation, celebration, and accessibility of Tamil literature, poetry, history, and cultural heritage spanning over two millennia.

These Terms of Service ("Terms") govern your access to and use of the Padippakam website, mobile applications, and related services (collectively, the "Service"). Our mission is to make the richness of Tamil literary tradition accessible to readers, scholars, and enthusiasts worldwide.

By using Padippakam, you join a community committed to honoring and preserving one of the world's oldest living literary traditions. We ask that all members engage with respect for the cultural significance of the works in our collection.

By accessing or using the Service, you confirm that you have read, understood, and agree to be bound by these Terms. If you do not agree to these Terms, please discontinue use of the Service immediately.

These Terms constitute a legally binding agreement between you and Padippakam. Your continued use of the Service following any changes to these Terms constitutes acceptance of the revised Terms.

Padippakam grants you a limited, non-exclusive, non-transferable, revocable license to access and use the Service for your personal, non-commercial purposes in accordance with these Terms.

You may use the Service to:

• Browse, read, and engage with Tamil literary works in our collection
• Create reading lists, bookmarks, and personal notes
• Download content expressly made available for download
• Share links to content on the platform through social media or other channels
• Contribute original content as permitted by your account role
• Participate in community discussions and annotations

The Service is provided for educational, cultural, and personal enrichment purposes. Commercial use of any content or features requires prior written permission from Padippakam.

Certain features of the Service require you to create an account. When registering, you agree to provide accurate, current, and complete information. You are responsible for maintaining the confidentiality of your account credentials and for all activities that occur under your account.

Padippakam uses a tiered role system to manage access and contributions:

You must notify us immediately at info@padippaham.net if you suspect any unauthorized use of your account. Padippakam is not liable for any loss resulting from unauthorized account access that occurs before notification.

We reserve the right to suspend or terminate accounts that violate these Terms, remain inactive for an extended period, or are found to be fraudulent.

Padippakam is a steward of Tamil cultural heritage. Our library contains works spanning classical Sangam poetry (300 BCE–300 CE) to contemporary Tamil literature. We take intellectual property rights seriously.

Your Submitted Content: When you submit content to Padippakam as a Contributor, you grant us a worldwide, royalty-free, non-exclusive license to host, display, translate, and distribute that content as part of the Service. You retain ownership of your original work.

You warrant that any content you submit does not infringe the intellectual property rights of any third party. If you believe content on Padippakam infringes your copyright, please contact us at info@padippaham.net with a detailed description of the alleged infringement.

We are committed to fair use principles that support scholarship, criticism, commentary, and education in service of preserving Tamil literary heritage for future generations.

To protect our community and the integrity of Tamil cultural heritage, the following activities are strictly prohibited on Padippakam:

• Reproducing, distributing, or commercially exploiting copyrighted content without authorization
• Uploading content that is obscene, defamatory, hateful, or discriminatory
• Misrepresenting the authorship or origin of literary works
• Attempting to gain unauthorized access to other user accounts or platform systems
• Using automated tools (bots, scrapers, crawlers) to access or extract content at scale
• Transmitting malware, spam, or any harmful code through the Service
• Interfering with the proper functioning of the Service or servers
• Selling, transferring, or sublicensing your account access to others
• Using the Service for any unlawful purpose or in violation of applicable laws
• Engaging in conduct that degrades or disrespects Tamil cultural traditions or communities

Violations may result in immediate account suspension, content removal, and — where warranted — referral to appropriate legal authorities.

The Service is provided on an "as is" and "as available" basis without warranties of any kind, either express or implied, including but not limited to implied warranties of merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose, or non-infringement.

Padippakam does not warrant that:

• The Service will be uninterrupted, timely, secure, or error-free
• The results obtained from using the Service will be accurate or reliable
• Any errors in the Service will be corrected
• All content is free from inaccuracies, transcription errors, or omissions

While we strive for scholarly accuracy in all content — particularly in classical texts and translations — historical Tamil literature presents unique challenges of interpretation and transliteration. We encourage cross-referencing with authoritative academic sources for scholarly work.

To the fullest extent permitted by applicable law, Padippakam and its officers, directors, employees, and agents shall not be liable for any indirect, incidental, special, consequential, or punitive damages — including loss of data, loss of profits, or loss of goodwill — arising out of or related to your use of or inability to use the Service.

In no event shall our total liability to you for all claims arising from or relating to the Service exceed the greater of: (a) the amount you paid to Padippakam in the twelve months preceding the claim, or (b) one hundred US dollars (USD $100).

Some jurisdictions do not allow the exclusion of certain warranties or the limitation of liability for certain damages. In such jurisdictions, our liability is limited to the greatest extent permitted by law.

Padippakam reserves the right to modify these Terms at any time. When we make material changes, we will:

• Update the "Last Updated" date at the top of this page
• Send a notification email to registered users
• Display a prominent notice on the Service for a reasonable period

Changes become effective 14 days after posting unless the change is required by law, in which case it becomes effective immediately. Your continued use of the Service after changes take effect constitutes acceptance of the revised Terms.

We recommend bookmarking this page and reviewing it periodically. The history of significant revisions will be maintained and made available upon request.

If you have questions, concerns, or feedback about these Terms of Service, or if you wish to report a violation, please reach out to us:

We aim to respond to all inquiries within 5 business days. For urgent matters regarding copyright infringement or account security, please mark your subject line accordingly for prioritized handling.