Terms of Service

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These Terms of Service (“Terms”) are an agreement between you and The Fifth Stream, LLC (“The Fifth Stream,” “we,” “us,” or “our”). They govern your access to and use of the website through which these Terms are posted, including its content, communications, digital products, and related features (collectively, the “Site”).

1. Agreement to These Terms

By accessing or using the Site, you agree to these Terms and acknowledge the Privacy Policy and Disclaimer posted on the Site. If you purchase a product, submit an order, or affirmatively accept these Terms, your click or other electronic action also expresses your agreement.

If you do not agree, do not use the Site or purchase through it. If you use the Site for an organization, you represent that you are authorized to bind that organization; “you” then includes both you and the organization.

2. About The Fifth Stream

The Fifth Stream is a publishing and advisory practice. It develops and shares reflective, intellectual, and applied resources intended to support intention, formation, and restoration. Offerings may include essays, books, guides, frameworks, diagrams, assessments, educational materials, digital downloads, and separately contracted advisory partnerships.

The Site may change as The Fifth Stream’s work develops. A description of an offering is not a promise that it will remain available or that a particular outcome will result.

3. Eligibility and Responsible Use

The Site is intended for a general audience and is not directed to children under 13. A person under 13 may not submit personal information, make a purchase, or request services through the Site. If you are between 13 and 17, you may use the Site only with the involvement and permission of a parent or legal guardian. You must be at least 18 and legally able to enter a contract to make a purchase or request an advisory engagement.

You are responsible for using the Site and its materials with sound judgment and in a manner appropriate to your circumstances.

4. Educational and Informational Purpose

All publications, resources, frameworks, assessments, examples, and other materials available through the Site (collectively, “Materials”) are offered for educational and informational purposes. They present ideas for reflection and application; they are not individualized professional advice, diagnosis, treatment, or a substitute for qualified professional services.

You remain responsible for your decisions, actions, relationships, health, finances, legal matters, and other circumstances. Consider obtaining appropriate professional advice before acting on information that could materially affect you or others.

5. No Professional or Fiduciary Relationship

Visiting the Site, reading or purchasing Materials, joining an email list, sending a message, or participating in a general educational offering does not create any of the following relationships:

• therapist–client or counselor–client;
• psychologist–patient or physician–patient;
• attorney–client;
• pastoral counseling or spiritual-direction;
• financial, investment, or tax advisory; or
• fiduciary or other relationship of special trust.

No communication through the Site is protected by a professional privilege merely because it concerns personal, health, legal, spiritual, or financial matters.

6. No Mental Health or Crisis Services

The Fifth Stream does not provide psychotherapy, psychological services, medical care, clinical counseling, diagnosis, treatment, crisis intervention, or licensed mental health services through the Site. Reflective questions, self-assessments, formation-oriented resources, and advisory conversations are not clinical evaluations and should not be used to diagnose or treat any condition.

The Site and its contact channels are not monitored or designed for emergencies. If you believe you or another person may be in immediate danger or needs urgent medical or mental health assistance, contact local emergency services or an appropriately licensed professional.

7. Advisory Services Require a Separate Agreement

Information about Personal Advisory, Systems Advisory, or other advisory offerings is an invitation to inquire, not an offer or acceptance of an engagement. An advisory relationship begins only after The Fifth Stream and the client sign or otherwise accept a separate written Advisory Services Agreement and any required scope, fee, or intake documents.

That separate agreement governs the advisory relationship, including scope, boundaries, fees, scheduling, confidentiality, records, termination, and any service-specific limitations. If it conflicts with these Terms on an advisory matter, the separate agreement controls.

The Fifth Stream may decline an inquiry or proposed engagement for any lawful reason and does not guarantee availability or fit.

8. Purchases, Orders, and Delivery

8.1 Product information and orders

The Site may offer books, guides, frameworks, digital downloads, or other resources (“Products”). Product descriptions, formats, compatibility information, prices, and availability may change before an order is accepted. We try to describe Products accurately, but minor differences in color, appearance, formatting, or device rendering may occur.

Your order is an offer to purchase. We may accept, decline, limit, or cancel an order for reasons such as pricing or description errors, suspected fraud, unauthorized activity, technical problems, or unavailability. If we cancel after collecting payment, we will refund the amount collected for the canceled item.

8.2 Price, payment, and taxes

Prices are shown in the currency identified at checkout. Before you submit an order, the Site will display the amount charged and any additional amounts presented through the checkout flow. You authorize the applicable payment processor to charge your selected payment method. You are responsible for applicable taxes, duties, and charges disclosed for the transaction.

Payments are processed through Squarespace and third-party payment processors such as Stripe. We do not receive or store your full payment-card number. Their services are governed by their own terms and privacy practices.

8.3 Digital delivery

Digital Products are generally delivered through an on-screen link, email, account access, or another method described at checkout. You are responsible for providing a working email address, checking filtered folders, downloading the file within any stated access period, and maintaining a lawful backup for personal use.

If delivery fails or a file is materially defective, contact admin@thefifthstream.com with the order information. We may verify the purchase before re-delivering, replacing, or repairing the Product.

9. Refunds and Cancellations

All sales of Digital Products are final. We do not offer refunds, returns, exchanges, or credits for Digital Products, including when a purchaser changes their mind, does not use the Product, or purchases the wrong Product. This rule is subject to any remedy that applicable law does not allow us to exclude.

For a delivery failure or material technical defect, contact admin@thefifthstream.com within 14 days after purchase. After verifying the order and issue, we may re-deliver, repair, or replace the affected Product. A refund will be provided only when required by applicable law or when we expressly agree otherwise in writing. Terms displayed for a particular Product or order control over this section if they are more specific.

If physical Products are offered, the shipping, return, and cancellation terms shown for those Products or in the Refund Policy will apply.

10. Digital Product License

A purchase gives you a limited license to use the purchased Digital Product; it does not transfer ownership of the Product or its intellectual property. Unless the Product page or a separate written license says otherwise, The Fifth Stream grants the purchaser a limited, personal, nonexclusive, nontransferable, non-sublicensable, and revocable license to download, access, and use one copy for the purchaser’s own noncommercial, internal educational purposes.

Under that license, you may store a reasonable backup and print one working copy for your own use. You may not share a download link or file, post it to a shared drive or platform, distribute copies, lend access, resell it, use it to provide services to others, remove ownership notices, or make it available to an organization or team without an applicable multi-user license.

The license ends automatically if you materially violate it. On termination, you must stop using and delete all copies within your possession or control, except for a copy retained solely when required by law.

11. Intellectual Work and Ownership

The Fifth Stream develops original intellectual work, including publications, essays, books, frameworks, educational materials, assessments, diagrams, icons, graphics, visual systems, downloads, methods, and advisory methodologies. The Site and Materials are owned by or licensed to The Fifth Stream’s operator and are protected, as applicable, by copyright, trademark, trade-secret, contract, and other laws.

Except for the limited rights expressly granted in these Terms or a separate written license, all rights are reserved. No implied license is granted. Purchasing or accessing a Material does not authorize you to reproduce, adapt, translate, publish, distribute, publicly display, publicly perform, sell, license, or create derivative works from it.

The Fifth Stream name, related names, logos, product names, and distinctive visual elements may be trademarks or source identifiers. You may not use them in a way that suggests sponsorship, endorsement, affiliation, or origin without prior written permission.

Nothing in these Terms restricts a right that applicable law makes nonwaivable, including lawful fair use. When you quote or refer to The Fifth Stream’s work under an applicable legal exception, use accurate attribution and do not imply endorsement.

12. Limited Permission to Share Links

You may share a link to a publicly available Site page and may reproduce a brief quotation from a public essay for genuine commentary, criticism, scholarship, or discussion, provided the use is lawful, accurately attributed, not misleading, and does not substitute for the original work. This permission does not apply to paid, gated, downloadable, or unpublished Materials.

For reprints, classroom packets, organizational distribution, commercial use, translations, adaptations, or other permissions, contact admin@thefifthstream.com before use.

13. Prohibited Conduct

You may not use the Site or Materials to:

• violate law, another person’s rights, or these Terms;
• copy, republish, distribute, sell, license, or commercially exploit Materials except as expressly permitted;
• scrape, crawl, index, harvest, mirror, archive, or systematically extract Site content through automated or manual means, other than ordinary search-engine indexing authorized by our technical settings;
• bypass paywalls, access controls, download limits, robots directives, security features, or other technical protections;
• probe, scan, disrupt, overload, damage, or interfere with the Site, its hosting, or another user’s access;
• use another person’s payment method, identity, credentials, download link, or order information without authorization;
• misrepresent your identity, affiliation, authority, or the source of Materials; or
• use Materials to create a competing publication, product, service, library, repository, database, or substitute.

13.1 Artificial intelligence and machine learning

Without prior written permission, you may not use, upload, input, transmit, or make available any nonpublic or paid Material—or any substantial collection of public Materials—for training, fine-tuning, grounding, retrieval-augmented generation, embedding, evaluation, benchmarking, synthetic-data creation, or other development or operation of an artificial-intelligence or machine-learning system.

You also may not use an automated system to generate outputs intended to reproduce, imitate, summarize at scale, or substitute for The Fifth Stream’s Materials, products, frameworks, or distinctive body of work. This section does not prohibit a use expressly licensed in writing or a right that applicable law makes nonwaivable.

14. Messages, Submissions, and Feedback

14.1 Messages and other submissions

If you send a message, inquiry, testimonial, file, or other content through the Site (“Submission”), you represent that you have the right to send it and that it does not violate law or another person’s rights. You retain ownership of your Submission.

You give us a limited, nonexclusive license to receive, store, reproduce, and use the Submission only as reasonably necessary to operate the Site, respond to you, evaluate an inquiry, fulfill your request, protect the Site, and comply with law. We will handle personal information as described in the Privacy Policy.

Ordinary Site messages are not a confidential, privileged, clinical, or advisory channel. Do not submit medical records, detailed health histories, government identification numbers, full payment-card data, or other highly sensitive information through a general contact form. Confidentiality for an advisory client, if any, is governed by the separate Advisory Services Agreement.

14.2 Feedback

If you voluntarily send an idea or suggestion about the Site or an offering, you permit us to use that feedback without restriction or compensation, provided we do not publicly identify you without permission. This feedback permission does not transfer ownership of your pre-existing work or personal information.

15. Privacy, Email, and Cookies

The Privacy Policy posted on the Site explains how personal information is collected, used, shared, protected, and retained. It is incorporated into these Terms by reference. If these Terms and the Privacy Policy directly conflict about the handling of personal information, the Privacy Policy controls.

If you join an email list, you may unsubscribe through the link in an email or by contacting us. Service or transaction messages, such as order delivery and responses to your requests, may still be sent when necessary.

The Site and its service providers may use cookies or similar technology needed for website operation, security, preferences, analytics, checkout, or delivery as described in the Privacy Policy or any Cookie Policy posted on the Site.

16. Third-Party Services and Links

The Site may rely on or link to third-party services, including Squarespace, Stripe, email tools, payment processors, hosting providers, embedded media, and external websites. A link or integration does not mean that we control or endorse the third party.

Third-party services have their own terms, privacy practices, availability, and security. To the extent permitted by law, you use them at your own discretion, and The Fifth Stream is not responsible for their content, conduct, products, policies, or independent acts or omissions.

17. Copyright Concerns

The Fifth Stream respects intellectual-property rights. If you believe content on the Site infringes your copyright, send admin@thefifthstream.com a written notice identifying the work claimed to be infringed, the specific Site material and location, your contact information, a statement of your good-faith belief, a statement that the notice is accurate and that you are authorized to act, and your physical or electronic signature.

We may remove or restrict access to challenged material while we evaluate a notice. This contact procedure does not represent that The Fifth Stream has appointed or registered a Digital Millennium Copyright Act agent.

18. Availability, Changes, and Suspension

We may maintain, modify, suspend, withdraw, or discontinue any part of the Site or an offering. We do not promise uninterrupted, secure, or error-free access, or that every error will be corrected. We may limit or block access when reasonably necessary to protect the Site, enforce these Terms, address legal or security concerns, or respond to misuse.

Termination or suspension does not cancel payment obligations already incurred or rights and duties that by their nature should continue, including intellectual-property, license restrictions, disclaimers, liability limits, indemnification, and dispute provisions.

19. Disclaimer of Warranties

To the fullest extent permitted by law, the Site, Materials, and Products are provided “as is” and “as available.” The Fifth Stream disclaims implied warranties of merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose, title, noninfringement, and any warranty arising from course of dealing or usage of trade.

We do not warrant that the Site or Materials will be complete, current, accurate for every purpose, uninterrupted, compatible with every device, free from harmful components, or suitable for your circumstances. Some jurisdictions do not allow certain warranty exclusions, so some of this section may not apply to you.

20. Limitation of Liability

To the fullest extent permitted by law, The Fifth Stream and its operator, owners, personnel, contractors, licensors, and service providers will not be liable for indirect, incidental, special, exemplary, punitive, or consequential damages, or for lost profits, revenue, data, goodwill, opportunity, or business interruption, arising from or related to the Site, Materials, Products, or these Terms, even if advised that such harm was possible.

To the fullest extent permitted by law, their combined liability for all claims arising from or related to the Site, Materials, Products, or these Terms will not exceed the greater of (a) the amount you paid to The Fifth Stream for the specific Product or transaction giving rise to the claim during the 12 months before the event, or (b) US $100.

These limits do not exclude liability that applicable law does not permit to be excluded or limited, and they do not limit any nonwaivable consumer remedy. The limitations apply only to the extent lawful in your jurisdiction.

21. Indemnification

To the extent permitted by law, you agree to defend, indemnify, and hold harmless The Fifth Stream and its operator, owners, personnel, contractors, licensors, and service providers from third-party claims, losses, liabilities, judgments, damages, and reasonable costs (including reasonable attorneys’ fees) arising from your unlawful conduct, material breach of these Terms, infringement or misuse of another person’s rights, or unauthorized use or distribution of Materials.

We will provide reasonable notice of a covered claim and may control its defense and settlement, provided we will not agree to a settlement that imposes a personal admission or nonmonetary obligation on you without your consent. You will reasonably cooperate. This section does not require a consumer to indemnify a party for conduct for which indemnification cannot lawfully be required.

22. Governing Law and Venue

These Terms are governed by the laws of the State of Michigan, without regard to its conflict-of-laws rules, except to the extent federal law applies or applicable law gives you nonwaivable rights in another jurisdiction.

Subject to Section 23, any legal proceeding arising from or related to these Terms, the Site, Materials, or Products must be brought in the state courts located in Washtenaw County, Michigan, or the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Michigan. You and The Fifth Stream consent to personal jurisdiction and venue in those courts, except where applicable law does not permit that choice.

These Terms do not require arbitration and do not include a class-action waiver. A later written agreement, including an Advisory Services Agreement, may contain different dispute terms if clearly stated and separately accepted.

23. Informal Dispute Resolution

Before filing a claim, you and The Fifth Stream agree to make a good-faith effort to resolve the dispute informally. A notice should describe the issue, relevant transaction, requested resolution, and reliable contact information. Send notices to admin@thefifthstream.com. If physical delivery is legally required or reasonably necessary, request current delivery instructions through that email address.

The receiving party will have 30 days after receipt to respond before either party files a proceeding, unless immediate relief is reasonably necessary to protect safety, confidential information, intellectual property, access controls, or a claim that could expire. This process does not prevent either party from using an available small-claims procedure.

24. Changes to These Terms

We may revise these Terms to reflect changes in the Site, offerings, law, or business practices. The revised version will be posted with an updated date. When required by law or reasonably appropriate for a material change, we will provide additional notice.

Changes apply prospectively from their stated effective date. Your continued use after that date means you accept the revised Terms, but a material change will not retroactively alter a dispute that arose before the change. Product purchases remain subject to the version and checkout terms accepted for that transaction unless the parties agree otherwise.

25. General Terms

• Entire agreement and priority. These Terms, the Privacy Policy, the Disclaimer, and any purchase-specific terms form the agreement for ordinary Site use and purchases. A signed Advisory Services Agreement, product-specific license, or checkout term controls within its more specific subject matter.
• Electronic communications. You agree that we may communicate electronically about the Site, orders, and requests. You may retain these Terms by printing or saving them.
• Severability. If a provision is found unenforceable, it will be enforced to the greatest lawful extent and the remaining provisions will continue.
• No waiver. A delay or failure to enforce a provision is not a waiver.
• Assignment. You may not assign these Terms without our written consent. We may assign them in connection with a reorganization, financing, sale, or transfer of the relevant business or assets, subject to applicable law.
• Force majeure. We are not responsible for delay or failure caused by events beyond reasonable control, except for obligations that applicable law does not allow us to excuse.
• Headings. Headings support readability and do not change the meaning of a provision.

26. Contact

Questions, permission requests, legal notices, and support requests may be sent to: