Terms of service
CAUTtools is in limited beta. There is no public self-service sign-up. Access today is arranged directly, and the commercial specifics — term, notice periods, fees, service levels, and deletion timelines — are set in that written agreement rather than fixed here. The clauses below describe our intended baseline, not a standing offer.
These terms govern use of the CAUTtools service. Where an institution has signed a separate written agreement with us, that agreement governs and these terms fill any gaps. Institutions routinely negotiate: we expect it, and we will work from your paper if your procurement office requires it.
1. Definitions
"We", "us", and "CAUTtools" mean Willis Glen Miller III, sole proprietor, doing business as CAUTtools. "Customer" means the institution subscribing to the service. "Users" means the people the Customer authorises to use it. "Customer Data" means everything the Customer or its Users put into the service, including instrument records, service history, photographs, and service requests submitted by third parties.
2. The service
We provide hosted software for managing an institutional piano maintenance program, on the Customer's own subdomain and in the Customer's own database. We will provide it with reasonable skill and care and will not materially reduce its functionality during a paid term.
3. Subscription and fees
The service is provided on an annual subscription, quoted per institution. Fees, the number of instruments covered, and any migration services are set out in the order or quotation. Fees are invoiced annually in advance unless agreed otherwise. Fees exclude taxes, which the Customer is responsible for where applicable.
We will give at least 60 days' written notice before any change to renewal pricing, so it can be raised in your budget cycle rather than after it.
4. Customer Data
- The Customer owns its data. We acquire no ownership of it.
- We use Customer Data only to provide and support the service, as described in the privacy policy.
- We do not use Customer Data to train machine learning or AI models.
- We do not sell Customer Data or share it for advertising.
- The Customer may export its data at any time during the subscription, not only at the end.
The Customer is responsible for the accuracy of what it puts in, and for having the right to put it there.
5. Acceptable use
Users must not:
- Attempt to access another institution's data, or any part of the service they are not authorised to use.
- Probe, scan, or test the security of the service without our written permission, other than good-faith vulnerability reporting as described on the security page.
- Upload malware, or content that is unlawful or infringing.
- Use the service to store education records, health information, payment card data, or government identifiers. It is not designed for those categories and must not be used for them.
- Resell or provide the service to a third party that is not part of the Customer institution, without our agreement.
6. Availability and support
We aim to keep the service available during the Customer's working hours and to carry out planned maintenance outside them, with notice where it will be disruptive.
We do not offer a contractual uptime guarantee under these standard terms. Institutions that require a service level agreement should raise it during contracting; we will agree terms we can actually meet rather than terms that read well.
Support is provided by email at hello@cauttools.com during United States Mountain Time business hours. In beta we do not offer a target first-response time or a contractual response-time guarantee.
7. Third-party material
The service implements recommendations from Guidelines for Effective Institutional Piano Maintenance, published by the College and University Technicians Committee of the Piano Technicians Guild. That document is the property of its publisher. We reference and attribute it; we do not claim it, and CAUTtools is not affiliated with, published by, certified by, or endorsed by the Piano Technicians Guild.
Outputs of the workload formula are advisory. They are a planning aid, not a professional recommendation, and staffing decisions remain the institution's.
8. Warranties and disclaimers
We warrant that we will provide the service with reasonable skill and care, and that we have the right to provide it.
Otherwise, and to the extent permitted by law, the service is provided without further warranties, express or implied, including implied warranties of merchantability or fitness for a particular purpose. We do not warrant that the service will be uninterrupted or error-free, or that the workload formula's output will match any particular staffing outcome.
9. Limitation of liability
Neither party excludes liability for death or personal injury caused by negligence, for fraud, or for anything else that cannot lawfully be excluded.
Subject to that, and to the extent permitted by law, neither party is liable for indirect or consequential loss, or for loss of profit, revenue, or anticipated savings. Each party's total liability arising from the agreement is limited to the fees paid or payable by the Customer in the twelve months preceding the claim.
Public institutions frequently cannot accept standard caps, indemnities, or governing law clauses, and often have statutory constraints of their own. We negotiate these. Send your standard terms and we will work from them.
10. Indemnity
We will defend the Customer against a third-party claim that the service as supplied infringes that party's intellectual property rights, and will pay damages finally awarded, provided the Customer notifies us promptly and lets us conduct the defence.
11. Term and termination
- The subscription runs for the term stated in the order and renews annually unless either party gives notice at least 30 days before the renewal date.
- Either party may terminate for material breach that is not remedied within 30 days of written notice.
- On termination, we provide a full export of Customer Data in standard formats and then delete it from the live service. Backup copies age out on the provider's rolling retention window, currently three weeks, so all copies are gone within 30 days of termination.
12. Changes to these terms
We may update these terms. Material changes take effect for a Customer at their next renewal, not mid-term, and we will give notice by email.
13. Governing law
These terms are governed by the laws of the State of New Mexico, the United States, and the courts of that jurisdiction have exclusive jurisdiction — except where the Customer is a public institution whose own law requires otherwise, in which case we will agree an alternative.
14. Contact
hello@cauttools.com
Willis Glen Miller III, sole proprietor, doing business as CAUTtools
87 Calle Azul, Corrales, New Mexico 87048, United States