Murder of Lies™ · Legal
Terms of Service
1. Who we are
Murder of Lies (the “Game”) — including its first scenario, The Hampton Case, the iOS and Android apps, and any web version we offer — is operated by Help Protect, LLC, a Delaware limited liability company (“Help Protect”, “we”, “us”). You can reach us through the contact form at helpprotect.net.
2. Acceptance and records
By tapping “Agree & Open the File”, creating an account, or using the Game after these Terms are presented to you, you agree to these Terms. Our Privacy Policy describes how we process personal data; by continuing, you acknowledge that it has been made available to you. If you do not agree, do not use the Game. We record the Terms version and acceptance time with your account. We may update these Terms, but material changes will be presented in the Game for renewed acceptance. The version accepted when an event occurred continues to govern that event unless applicable law requires otherwise.
3. Eligibility and guardians
You must be at least 13 years old and meet any higher age requirement imposed by the store through which you obtain the Game. The Game is not directed to children under 13. If you are under the age of legal majority where you live, you may use the Game only after a parent or legal guardian has reviewed and agreed to these Terms on your behalf and has permitted your use; that adult accepts responsibility for your use. The Game depicts a fictional homicide investigation, mature themes, live AI dialogue, and player-to-player communications. If you or your guardian do not consider that appropriate, do not play.
4. Fictional game and AI dialogue
(a) All characters, events, evidence, and locations in Murder of Lies are fictional. Any resemblance to real persons, living or dead, is coincidental.
(b) Suspects and other characters are played live by artificial-intelligence language models. Their dialogue is generated rather than scripted and may be inaccurate, inconsistent, repetitive, offensive, or unsettling. Outputs are not guaranteed to be unique or deterministic, and other players may receive similar dialogue. AI dialogue is entertainment content only — it is not factual, legal, medical, investigative, or other professional advice, it does not reflect our views, and you must not rely on it outside the Game.
(c) Text you enter is processed with necessary game context by third-party AI providers to generate responses, as described in Privacy Policy §4. Do not submit personal or confidential information, credentials, unlawful material, or material you do not have permission to provide. We may filter, refuse, or limit prompts or outputs to protect players, the Game, and our providers.
5. Your text and communications
You retain any rights you hold in the original text you submit (“Player Content”). You grant Help Protect a worldwide, non-exclusive, royalty-free license, sublicensable only to the service providers that operate the Game, to host, store, reproduce, process, transmit, moderate, and display Player Content solely to provide, secure, support, and enforce the rules of the Game. This license lasts only as long as the content is retained for those purposes or as required by law. You represent that you have the rights needed to submit Player Content and that it does not violate law or another person’s rights. Team-channel messages and the shared case state are visible to every member of that case and are not confidential.
6. Your account and account deletion
You sign in with Apple or Google; we create a Game account tied to that identity. Keep access to your device and sign-in account secure, do not share your Game account, and promptly contact us about unauthorized use. You are responsible for activity on your account to the extent permitted by law. You may request account deletion as described in the Privacy Policy. Deletion is scheduled and becomes permanent after a 7-day grace period, during which signing in lets you cancel it; once complete, it permanently removes game progress and unused allowances, subject to stated retention and legal obligations.
Deleting your Game account or uninstalling the Game does not cancel an Apple App Store or Google Play subscription. You must cancel separately through the store where you purchased it. If you delete before canceling, store billing may continue and access may be unavailable until you sign in and successfully restore the entitlement.
7. Free tier
The free tier includes limited cases and interrogation messages, including an in-game point at which a free case may seal until you subscribe. Limits are enforced per account and, for guest web play, per installation. We may change free-tier limits prospectively. Free allowances and game progress have no cash value, cannot be transferred or sold, and do not create a permanent entitlement to any feature.
8. Subscriptions
(a) Detective and Chief are monthly auto-renewing subscriptions purchased through the Apple App Store or Google Play. The store displays the localized price, applicable taxes, billing period, and any trial or promotional terms before confirmation. The subscription renews for additional monthly periods at the then-applicable store price unless you cancel under the store’s timing rules. Uninstalling the Game or deleting your Game account does not cancel it.
(b) Each plan includes the case allowance displayed at purchase for that subscription period, measured against the renewal dates supplied by the store. A case counts when it is created. If you replace a case before sending three detective messages, that case allowance is automatically returned; after that, the case remains consumed whether or not you finish it. Creating a shared case uses one case from its creator’s allowance. Joining another player’s shared case does not consume an additional case, but every participant must have an active Chief entitlement. Unused cases expire at the end of the applicable subscription period and do not carry over, have no cash value, and cannot be transferred.
(c) Detective keeps subscribed interrogations open and includes access to each story made available to that tier while the subscription is active. Chief also enables shared cases for up to eight players and Timeline Lock, which lets the subscriber keep the same hidden timeline when restarting. No fixed release schedule for future stories is promised.
(d) The store controls purchase confirmation, charges, renewal timing, upgrades, downgrades, billing grace periods, cancellation, and most refunds. Cancellation normally takes effect at the end of the paid period; refunds and immediate cancellation remain available where the store’s rules or applicable law require them. Manage an Apple subscription at support.apple.com/118428 and a Google Play subscription at support.google.com/googleplay/answer/7018481. Help Protect does not receive your payment-card details and cannot cancel a store subscription for you.
(e) The paid allowance and material benefits displayed when you purchase will not be materially reduced during a period for which you have already paid. We may change a plan prospectively beginning with a later renewal after providing any notice and cancellation opportunity required by the store or applicable law. If we discontinue the Game during a paid period, we will provide the continued access or refund remedy required by the applicable store and law.
(f) A store entitlement attaches to your Game account and may be restored on a device where you are signed in to that account, subject to successful store verification. Access may end immediately after expiration or refund and may continue temporarily during a store-authorized billing grace period.
9. Co-op play
Co-op requires a signed-in account and an active Chief entitlement for every participant. Shared cases allow up to eight players to question suspects, investigate, present evidence, communicate in team chat, and make decisions that alter or end the case for everyone. Your display name, team messages, and shared case activity are visible to teammates and stored with the case. Invite codes are for people you trust; anyone who satisfies the access requirements and has a valid live code may join until the roster is full. Do not treat an invite code, team chat, or shared case as confidential.
10. Conduct
You agree not to: (a) abuse, disrupt, exploit, or attempt to gain unauthorized access to the Game, another account, another case’s hidden state, or our AI systems, including extracting system prompts; (b) reverse engineer or circumvent technical protections except to the limited extent the law expressly permits; (c) use the Game to create, request, or distribute unlawful content or content that infringes another person’s rights; (d) harass, threaten, impersonate, exploit, or disclose personal information about another player; (e) evade free-tier limits, purchases, subscription rules, invite protections, or device-integrity checks; (f) sell, transfer, or share accounts, entitlements, allowances, or invite access; or (g) access the service by bots, scrapers, or other automated means without our written permission. We may investigate suspected violations and respond with a warning, content or feature restriction, invite revocation, suspension, or termination.
11. Our content and feedback
Except for Player Content, the Game — its stories, characters, art, text, music, code, interfaces, and trademarks, including “Murder of Lies” — is owned by Help Protect or its licensors. We grant you a personal, limited, non-exclusive, non-transferable, revocable license to use the Game for private entertainment, subject to these Terms and the applicable store’s usage rules. To the extent Help Protect holds rights in AI-generated dialogue, it is part of the Game’s content. You may share noncommercial screenshots or short gameplay excerpts that do not expose another person’s private information, but you may not commercially exploit the Game or its content without written permission. If you voluntarily submit feedback, you grant us a perpetual, worldwide, royalty-free right to use it without restriction or compensation.
12. Availability, changes, and third-party services
The Game is online-only and cases live on our servers. Open cases expire after inactivity, currently about 90 days. We may update or rebalance stories, rules, AI providers, security measures, and free features; paid-plan changes are subject to §8(e). The Game depends on app stores, sign-in providers, hosting networks, and AI providers that we do not control. We do not promise uninterrupted, error-free, or permanent availability, or that every device or version will remain supported. We are not responsible for delay or failure caused by events beyond our reasonable control, but this does not reduce remedies that cannot lawfully be limited.
13. Disclaimers
To the maximum extent permitted by law, the Game and all AI dialogue are provided “AS IS” and “AS AVAILABLE”, without express or implied warranties, including merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose, title, non-infringement, accuracy, availability, or uninterrupted operation. These disclaimers do not affect mandatory consumer guarantees or other rights that cannot be waived.
14. Limitation of liability and indemnity
To the maximum extent permitted by law, Help Protect and its members, employees, contractors, and licensors are not liable for indirect, incidental, special, consequential, exemplary, or punitive damages, or loss of data, progress, profits, goodwill, or opportunity. Our total aggregate liability arising from the Game or these Terms is limited to the greater of (a) the amounts paid for the Game, whether to us or through an app store, during the 12 months before the event giving rise to the claim or (b) USD 100. These limits do not apply to liability that cannot lawfully be limited, including where applicable liability for fraud, fraudulent misrepresentation, willful misconduct, gross negligence, death or personal injury, or mandatory privacy, security, and consumer rights. Some jurisdictions do not allow particular exclusions or limits; there, they apply only to the fullest extent permitted.
To the extent permitted by law, you will indemnify Help Protect against a third-party claim and reasonable resulting costs to the extent directly caused by Player Content that infringes that third party’s rights or by your willful violation of §10. This obligation does not apply to the extent a claim results from our negligence, willful misconduct, or violation of law.
15. Suspension and termination
You may stop using the Game at any time, delete your account, and separately cancel a subscription through the store. We may restrict, suspend, or terminate access for a material or repeated breach of these Terms, fraud, a security threat, unlawful use, or where required by law. Where practical and lawful, we will provide notice and the reason. Service discontinuation is governed by §8(e) and §12. Termination does not cancel an app-store subscription or create a refund right except where the store’s rules or applicable law provide one. Sections 5, 8, 10, 11, 13–18 and provisions which by their nature should survive will survive termination.
16. Governing law and disputes
These Terms are governed by the laws of the State of Delaware, United States, excluding its conflict-of-law rules, except that this choice does not deprive you of mandatory consumer protections in your place of residence. Before filing a claim, each party will send the other a written description of the dispute and requested relief and allow 30 days to attempt an informal resolution. Notices to Help Protect may be submitted through helpprotect.net. This process does not prevent a party from preserving a limitations period, seeking urgent injunctive relief, or bringing an eligible small-claims action.
Subject to those mandatory rights and exceptions, disputes arising from these Terms or the Game must be brought exclusively in the state or federal courts located in Delaware, and each party consents to their jurisdiction. If mandatory consumer law permits you to bring or defend a claim in the courts of your place of residence, this paragraph does not restrict that right.
17. App-store and third-party terms
For an iOS download, Apple’s Standard Licensed Application End User License Agreement (“Apple Standard EULA”) governs the license to the iOS application and Apple’s Usage Rules; these Terms govern your Game account, online service, gameplay, Player Content, and relationship with Help Protect. If they conflict regarding the iOS application license, the Apple Standard EULA controls. For an Android download, your use must also comply with the Google Play terms applicable to you. The applicable store’s terms control store billing, cancellation, and refunds if they conflict with §8. Help Protect, not Apple or Google, is responsible for the Game and its online service. Apple and Google are not parties to these Terms.
You must comply with applicable third-party service terms and export-control and sanctions laws. You represent that you are not located in an embargoed or comprehensively sanctioned region and are not on a United States government restricted-party list, to the extent that representation is permitted by law.
18. Miscellany
These Terms and the applicable app-store terms form the agreement governing your use of the Game; the Privacy Policy describes our data practices. If a provision is unenforceable, it will be enforced to the maximum lawful extent and the remainder will continue. Failure to enforce is not a waiver. You may not assign these Terms without our consent; we may assign them in connection with a merger, acquisition, financing, reorganization, or sale of the Game or our business. We may send service and legal notices in the Game, to the email associated with your account, or by posting them on murderoflies.com where permitted by law. Headings are for convenience only. Except as provided by the Apple Standard EULA, these Terms have no third-party beneficiaries.