Terms of Use

These Terms of Use ("Terms") govern your access to and use of the website, marketing pages, client portal, studio workspace, APIs, AI tools and academy (collectively, the "Services") operated by Three's A Crowd PTY LTD trading as Thirteen Degrees ("Thirteen Degrees", "we", "us"), a company incorporated under the laws of the Republic of South Africa. By accessing or using the Services you agree to be bound by these Terms together with our Privacy Policy, Acceptable Use Policy, Cookie Policy, DMCA & Copyright Policy and any signed Statement of Work ("SOW"). If you do not agree, do not use the Services.

1. Who we are

Thirteen Degrees is an AI-native marketing agency and studio. We provide campaign, always-on content, AI content production, creator activation, brand intelligence, commerce and academy services to brands and agencies. We are not a self-serve SaaS and we are not a publisher or broadcaster - engagements are governed by a written SOW and these Terms.

2. Accounts & client portal

• Access to the client portal, studio and academy is granted on invitation.
• You are responsible for safeguarding credentials and for all activity under your account.
• You must be 18 years or older to use protected areas of the Services.
• You must provide accurate information and keep it up to date.
• We may suspend or terminate access for breach of these Terms, the AUP or applicable law.

3. Engagements, fees & payment

Scope, deliverables, timelines and fees are set out in each SOW. Quoted fees are in South African Rand (ZAR), exclusive of VAT unless stated. Invoices are payable within 14 days of invoice date unless otherwise agreed. Late payments accrue interest at the prime rate plus 2% per annum. Media spend, third-party tooling, AI model usage, creator fees, talent buyouts and platform charges are passed through and are your responsibility.

4. Intellectual property

4.1 Pre-existing IP

Each party retains all rights in their pre-existing IP, including our platform, workflows, prompts, model weights, fine-tunes, templates, datasets, methodologies and the Thirteen Degrees name, marks and trade dress.

4.2 Deliverables

On full payment and subject to the SOW, you receive a worldwide, perpetual, paid-up licence to use approved deliverables for the agreed campaign and channels. Ownership transfer, if any, is addressed in the SOW. Generic underlying components, prompts, templates and AI workflows remain ours.

4.3 AI-generated content

Deliverables may include synthetic media including AI imagery, voice, video and "AI UGC" personas. The legal status, copyright protectability and exclusivity of AI outputs varies by jurisdiction and may change over time. We make no representation that AI-generated outputs are protectable by copyright, free of similarity to third-party works, or unique to you. You are responsible for final review, legal clearance, platform disclosure and the decision to publish.

4.4 Your inputs

You grant us a worldwide, royalty-free licence to use the briefs, brand assets, trademarks, product information, footage and reference material you supply ("Client Materials") for the purpose of providing the Services. You warrant that you own or have all rights necessary to grant this licence and that the Client Materials do not infringe any third-party rights.

5. Creator content & usage rights

For human creator activations, usage rights are governed by the creator agreement countersigned per activation. You may only use creator content within the geographies, channels, formats and term specified. Re-use beyond that requires written extension and may incur additional fees. You are solely responsible for compliance with paid-partnership, endorsement and influencer-marketing rules in each market.

6. Third-party platforms & integrations

The Services connect to, publish on, ingest data from and rely on third-party platforms including Meta (Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp), TikTok, Google (including YouTube, Google Ads, Analytics), Snap, Pinterest, X (Twitter), Shopify, Stripe and our upstream model, media and data providers (collectively, "Platforms").

• Your use of any Platform through the Services is also governed by that Platform's own terms, advertising policies, community standards, developer policies, AI labeling rules and data-processing terms. You must read, accept and comply with them.
• Platforms may change their APIs, policies, ranking, pricing, signal availability (including ad-tracking, conversion APIs and audience targeting) or terminate access at any time. We are not liable for any resulting loss of functionality, data, performance or attribution.
• You authorise us, as your processor and agent, to access, configure, publish to, retrieve insights from and manage assets on Platforms on your behalf using the credentials and access tokens you provide.
• Performance data, audience data and creative diagnostics returned by Platforms are provided "as is" by those Platforms. We do not warrant their accuracy, completeness or continued availability.

7. AI services & limitations - important

The Services use machine learning and generative AI models, including large language models, diffusion models and synthetic voice and video systems. AI outputs:

• Are probabilistic. They can be inaccurate, incomplete, biased, out of date or fabricated ("hallucinated"), and may produce results that appear confident but are wrong.
• May contain or resemble third-party content in ways we cannot fully detect.
• Are not professional, legal, medical, financial, regulatory, investment, tax, safety, engineering or psychological advice.
• Must be reviewed, fact-checked, clearance-checked and approved by a qualified human before being published, distributed, relied upon or used to make decisions about people.

You acknowledge and accept these limitations. To the maximum extent permitted by law, we have no liability for any decision, publication, transaction, regulatory action, loss, harm or claim arising from your use of, or reliance on, AI-generated outputs, whether produced by us, by our sub-processors, or by you in our tools. You are the controller of what is approved, published and shipped.

8. Acceptable use

You agree not to use the Services to create, train on or distribute content that is unlawful, defamatory, infringing, hateful, sexually explicit involving minors, deceptive, or that impersonates a real person without consent. See our Acceptable Use Policy. Violations may result in immediate suspension and termination without refund.

9. Data & privacy

Our handling of personal information is described in our Privacy Policy. Where we process personal information on your behalf in connection with paid media, audience building, creator outreach, Conversion APIs, Customer Match, Custom Audiences or similar Platform features, you are the controller / responsible party and we act as processor / operator. You warrant that you have a lawful basis (including all required consents and notices under POPIA, GDPR, ePrivacy and equivalent laws) for every dataset you instruct us to upload, sync or activate on any Platform.

10. Disclaimers

Except as expressly stated in a signed SOW, the Services and all deliverables are provided "as is" and "as available". To the maximum extent permitted by the Consumer Protection Act 68 of 2008 and other applicable law, we disclaim all warranties, express or implied, including merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose, non-infringement, uninterrupted operation, accuracy of AI outputs, accuracy of Platform data, and any specific commercial, performance, ROAS, reach, engagement or ranking outcome.

11. Limitation of liability

To the maximum extent permitted by law: (a) neither party will be liable for indirect, special, incidental, consequential, exemplary or punitive damages, or for loss of profits, revenue, goodwill, business opportunity, audience, followers, ad accounts, data or content; (b) our aggregate liability for all claims arising from or in connection with an SOW is capped at the fees actually paid to us under that SOW in the six (6) months preceding the event giving rise to the claim; and (c) we are not liable for the acts, omissions, decisions, downtime, policy changes, account suspensions or content moderation of any Platform, sub-processor or third-party model provider. The limitations in this section apply to the maximum extent permitted by law and survive termination.

12. Indemnity

You will defend, indemnify and hold harmless Thirteen Degrees and our directors, employees and sub-processors from and against any third-party claim, loss, damage, fine or expense (including reasonable legal fees) arising from: (a) Client Materials; (b) your approval, publication or distribution of any deliverable, including AI outputs; (c) your breach of these Terms, the AUP, any SOW or any Platform terms; (d) your instructions to upload, target, retarget or activate audiences and personal information; and (e) your products, offers, claims, regulatory status and customer relationships.

13. Confidentiality

Each party must keep the other's confidential information secret and use it only for the purposes of the engagement. This obligation survives termination for three (3) years; trade secrets are protected for so long as they qualify as such.

14. Term & termination

Either party may terminate an SOW for material breach not cured within fourteen (14) days of written notice. We may suspend or terminate immediately for AUP violations, non-payment, security risk, sanctions exposure or Platform-mandated take-down. On termination you remain liable for work performed and committed third-party costs up to the date of termination. Sections 4, 7, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13 and 15 survive termination.

15. Governing law & disputes

These Terms are governed by the laws of the Republic of South Africa. The parties submit to the non-exclusive jurisdiction of the Western Cape Division of the High Court, Cape Town. Nothing in these Terms limits any non-waivable statutory right you have as a consumer in your jurisdiction.

16. Changes

We may update these Terms. Material changes will be communicated to active clients and posted on this page with a new "Last updated" date. Continued use of the Services after changes take effect constitutes acceptance.

17. Electronic communications & ECT Act

You consent to receive communications from us in electronic form, including by email and through the client portal. Electronic communications, signatures and records satisfy any legal requirement that such communications be in writing, in accordance with the Electronic Communications and Transactions Act 25 of 2002 ("ECTA"). For the purposes of section 43 of ECTA, our full name, registration details and contact information are set out at the end of these Terms.

18. Force majeure

Neither party is liable for failure or delay in performance caused by events beyond its reasonable control, including acts of God, war, terrorism, civil unrest, strikes, epidemics, pandemics, load-shedding, network or Platform outages, cyber-attacks, sanctions, embargoes or government action. Payment obligations are not excused.

19. Assignment, sub-contracting & sub-processors

You may not assign or transfer your rights or obligations under these Terms without our prior written consent. We may assign these Terms to an affiliate or in connection with a corporate transaction, and we may engage sub-processors and sub-contractors (including hosting, AI model providers and Platform integrations) to deliver the Services, provided we remain responsible for their performance.

20. Severability, waiver & entire agreement

If any provision of these Terms is held unenforceable, the remaining provisions remain in full force and the unenforceable provision will be modified to the minimum extent necessary to make it enforceable. A failure to enforce any right is not a waiver of that right. These Terms, together with the Privacy Policy, AUP, Cookie Policy, DMCA Policy and any signed SOW, constitute the entire agreement between the parties and supersede all prior agreements and representations on the same subject matter.

21. Notices

Legal notices to us must be sent to legal@13-degrees.com and by post to Three's A Crowd PTY LTD, Century City, Cape Town, South Africa. Notices to you will be sent to the email address on your account or via the client portal and are deemed received on the next business day.

22. Contact & company details

Three's A Crowd PTY LTD trading as Thirteen Degrees, a private company incorporated in the Republic of South Africa. Postal & physical address: Century City, Cape Town, South Africa. Legal: legal@13-degrees.com. Privacy / Information Officer: privacy@13-degrees.com. Security: security@13-degrees.com.