These Terms apply to Paratext (all versions), the Paratext Registry, and the paratext.org website.
Paratext is jointly owned by SIL Global (7500 W Camp Wisdom Rd, Dallas, TX 75236, USA) and the United Bible Societies Association (Stonehill Green, Westlea, Swindon, Wiltshire, SN5 7PJ, UK).
You accept these Terms of Service, our Privacy Policy (registry.paratext.org/privacy-policy), and our Acceptable Use Policy (registry.paratext.org/acceptable-use) by ticking the agreement box when creating your Paratext account or installing the Paratext client. When we make material changes to any of these legal documents, we notify registered users by email at least 30 days before they take effect; continued use after that date constitutes your acceptance. If you do not agree to these Terms, you must stop using Paratext.
You represent that you are at least 18 years of age and have the legal capacity to enter into these Terms. If a person under 18 participates in using Paratext, they must do so under the supervision and legal responsibility of a registered adult (such as a Project or Organization Administrator), who accepts these Terms on their behalf. These Terms do not override any protection that the law of your own country gives to minors. If Paratext reasonably suspects that any user may be under 18 years of age, Paratext may suspend the user’s account without notice.
If you are an Organization Administrator, you represent that you have authority to bind your Organization to these Terms and you do not claim personal ownership of the organizational account.
If you are an Independent Translator, you accept these Terms for yourself only. All users must register through the Paratext Registry (see Section 4).
“Acceptable Use Policy” means the Paratext Acceptable Use Policy at registry.paratext.org/acceptable-use, as updated from time to time. It forms part of these Terms.
"Backup Agent" means the independent third party company, contracted to hold the Service Continuity Backup described in Section 18.
“Independent Translator” means an individual user registered in the Paratext Registry without affiliation to an Organization, having been approved by the Paratext Registration Committee.
“Intellectual Property Rights” or “IP Rights” means all intellectual property rights of any kind worldwide (copyrights, trademarks, patents, design rights, database rights, trade secrets, know-how, and similar rights), whether registered or unregistered, and applications and renewals.
“Organization” means the translation organization, church body, or other entity registered in the Paratext Registry under which you are registered. Your Organization is a separate party from you, with its own responsibilities under these Terms.
“Organization Administrator” means a person designated by an Organization to manage its registration, user accounts, and project settings. The Organization Administrator acts on behalf of the Organization, not on behalf of individual users.
“Organization User” means an individual user registered through an Organization and approved by an Organization Administrator.
“Paratext” or “the Software” means the Paratext client applications (including Paratext 9 and 10), the Paratext Registry, the Paratext APIs, the Send/Receive server, and the Paratext Live servers. Earlier versions of Paratext (prior to Paratext 9) remain subject to these Terms but are deprecated and provided as-is. Other Paratext-related products (e.g. Paratext Lite, Publishing Assistant) are governed by their own terms. If you are unsure whether a particular product is covered by these Terms, contact admin@paratext.org.
“Paratext Administration” means the Paratext Director and the administrative team the Director appoints, to whom the joint owners have assigned operational responsibility for Paratext. References to acts of Paratext Administration are acts of SIL and UBSA through their delegated administrative team.
“Personal Data” means any information relating to you as an identified or identifiable individual, as defined under applicable data-protection law. It includes at minimum your name and email address, and may include other information described in our Privacy Policy. Your Personal Data belongs to you; see the Privacy Policy for your data rights and the limits that apply to them (registry.paratext.org/privacy-policy).
“Privacy Policy” means the Paratext Privacy Policy at registry.paratext.org/privacy-policy, as updated from time to time.
“Project” means a structured set of translation data registered and managed within Paratext. A Project is managed either by an Organization (through an Organization Administrator) or by an Independent Translator. The party managing the Project controls access to its Project Data.
“Project Content” means the substantive translation work within a Paratext Project – including but not necessarily limited to: Scripture text, comments, revision history, checking results, Biblical Terms analyses, project knowledge base created inside Paratext, project settings, and user roles and permissions.
“Project Data” means Project Metadata and Project Content collectively.
“Project Metadata” means the registration and descriptive information about a Project (managing party, language, project type, description, registration status).
“Registry” or “Paratext Registry” means the Paratext registration system at registry.paratext.org.
“Resource” means Scripture text, reference material, or other content made available to you through Paratext under license from a third party or from us. A “Restricted Resource” is a Resource whose license terms limit its use beyond the general terms of Section 7.
“Send/Receive server” means the Paratext server infrastructure used to synchronize Project Content.
“Service Continuity Backup” means the mechanism described in Section 18 by which the Backup Agent holds a current copy of Project files and, if you opt in, your account-level Personal Data.
“Technical Data” means data about how Paratext is used, including but not limited to: device information, usage patterns, feature adoption, error reports, performance metrics, translation-progress analytics.
“Third-Party Extension” means a software component or service, developed by a party other than SIL or UBSA, that we have reviewed and approved for distribution through Paratext to provide additional functionality.
“We,” “us,” or “our” means SIL Global (“SIL”) and the United Bible Societies Association (“UBSA”), the joint owners of Paratext.
“You” or “your” means you as an individual user, whether registered as an Organization User or as an Independent Translator. Where these Terms refer to responsibilities or decisions belonging to an Organization, they say “your Organization” or “the Organization.”
Paratext and all rights in it are owned by SIL and UBSA. Subject to your compliance with these Terms, the Privacy Policy, and the Acceptable Use Policy, SIL and UBSA grant you a non-exclusive, non-transferable, non-sub-licensable, revocable, limited license to install and use Paratext, solely in the manner and format made available by SIL and UBSA for the purposes of Bible translation, Bible engagement, and related scholarly or publication activities. This license applies to both online and offline use. It does not grant you any ownership interest or any non-expressed license in Paratext.
Access to the Paratext Registry and Send/Receive server is available to users registered under a registered Organization or approved as Independent Translators. Access to the Paratext APIs is available through service accounts configured by Organization Administrators in the Registry, or by Independent Translators through arrangements with the Paratext Administration.
We reserve the right to suspend or revoke this license in accordance with Section 15, and to decline any application to use Paratext. Except where we reasonably believe immediate suspension is necessary i) to prevent harm,
ii) to enforce these Terms of Service or permissions granted hereunder,
iii) to protect the security or integrity of Paratext, or
iv) to comply with law,
we will give you reasonable notice before revoking your license and a reasonable opportunity to export your Project Data (consistent with the export mechanism in Section 17).
Reservation of Rights. Paratext and its licensors reserve all rights not expressly granted in these Terms of Service. No license or right is granted to you by implication or otherwise.
This license is conditional on your compliance with the following. You must not:
(a) attempt to gain unauthorized access to Paratext systems, servers, or other users’ accounts;
(b) reverse engineer, decompile, modify, or disassemble any part of Paratext or its underlying source code except where you are licensed to do so (including under the AGPL in respect of the AGPL Components, as defined in Section 3.B.1) or where such restriction is prohibited by applicable law;
(c) use Paratext or any automated tools to access, scrape, crawl, extract, or otherwise obtain content, data, or materials in a manner that infringes, misappropriates, or otherwise violates the intellectual property rights, publicity rights, or other legal rights of any third party;
(d) use Resources or content made available through Paratext in a manner that breaches the license terms applicable to that Resource or content;
(e) circumvent, disable, or otherwise interfere with any content-access, digital rights management, or usage-limiting features of Paratext;
(f) use Paratext to build or train a competing product or service, or to reproduce the functionality of Paratext, except where you are licensed to do so (including under the AGPL in respect of the AGPL Components); or
(g) remove, obscure, or alter any copyright, attribution, or proprietary notices associated with Paratext or with any Resource made available through Paratext.
Breach of any of these conditions entitles SIL and UBSA to suspend or revoke your license under Section 15.
3.B. Special Paratext 10 Considerations. These special provisions under this Section 3.B. do not limit any other term or condition herein. The remaining Terms of Service herein apply to Paratext as defined in Section 2, including the Paratext 10 application.
3.B.1. Open Source Components; No AGPL License to the Built Application. The final and built Paratext 10 application is licensed to you solely under these Terms of Service, not under the GNU Affero General Public License (“AGPL”) or any other license. Certain discrete components of the source code underlying the Paratext 10 application (the “AGPL Components”) are separately made available by SIL and UBSA under the AGPL, and are identified as such in the license notices accompanying the Paratext 10 application. Nothing in this section expands the rights granted under the AGPL.
3.B.2 No Copyleft Extension to the Application. Except for the AGPL Components identified by SIL and UBSA in the license notices accompanying the Paratext 10 application, all other source code, object code, design, structure, and interfaces comprising the Paratext 10 application are proprietary to SIL and UBSA and/or their licensors and are protected by copyright, trade secret, and other intellectual property laws. Use of, or interaction with, the Paratext 10 application over a network does not constitute a separate license or trigger any obligations under the AGPL.
All users must be registered at registry.paratext.org. Registration requires a valid name and email address. You are responsible for maintaining the accuracy of your registration information and the security of your account credentials. Registration is available through two paths:
Paratext functionality is available in three tiers.
Any Organization or Independent Translator who agrees to conduct Bible translation in accordance with the standards of the Forum of Bible Agencies International (FOBAI; fobai.org) and who is not in violation of these Terms may apply to register using the form for: an organization (https://registry.paratext.org/request/org) or an independent translator (https://registry.paratext.org/request/independent).
5.1. Data ownership summary: Your Personal Data is yours; Project Metadata belongs to the managing party; Project Content belongs to the rightsholder specified in the Registry; Technical Data is owned by SIL and UBSA, except to the extent it also constitutes your Personal Data. If there is a dispute as to who the managing party is, SIL and UBSA shall be the final arbiter in deciding the managing party.
Paratext and its features and functionality are jointly owned by SIL and UBSA and are protected globally by applicable copyright, trademark, and other IP Rights.
Third-party Resources and content made available through Paratext remain the property of their respective owners and are licensed, not owned, by SIL and UBSA.
5.2. Your Personal Data. You retain all rights to your Personal Data. We process it in accordance with our Privacy Policy.
5.3. Project Metadata and Project Content.
5.4. You acknowledge that Projects are operated on the basis that Project Content is owned by the rightsholder specified for the Project in the Registry. To the extent you hold any Intellectual Property Rights in Project Content you contribute, and to the extent permitted by applicable law, you hereby assign those rights to that rightsholder, such assignment taking effect on creation of the contribution.
Output generated by a Paratext feature that uses a third-party artificial-intelligence or machine-learning service is not Project Content until you incorporate it into a Project. Once incorporated, this Section applies to it. You are responsible for reviewing such output before incorporating it.
5.5. By using Paratext, the party managing each Project grants to SIL and UBSA a non-exclusive, worldwide license to host, store, transmit, process, analyze, back up, and display its Project Data for:
(a) providing and operating Paratext, including data synchronization, storage, collaboration features, investigating product issues, and the registration and review system;
(b) improving existing Paratext features and developing new Paratext capabilities (for example, quality checks, translation suggestions, project knowledge bases, or linguistic tools that serve Paratext users); and
(c) providing an additional Service Continuity Backup, unless the party managing the Project has opted out (see Section 18).
In exercising this license, we may use subcontractors and service providers (including cloud hosting, data processing, and providers of artificial-intelligence or machine-learning services) under our control and subject to the commitments in our Privacy Policy (registry.paratext.org/privacy-policy). This license is limited to Paratext – we will not publish, distribute, or make Project Content available outside Paratext, except as required for the purposes above, or as permitted by the party managing the Project, or as required by legal process binding on us or our service providers. Where we receive a legal demand for Project Content, we will disclose only what we are required to disclose, will seek to narrow or challenge demands we consider overbroad, and will notify the party managing the Project unless prohibited from doing so.
The license does not grant us the right to create standalone derivative works from Project Content that are used or made available outside Paratext. It continues for as long as the data remains on systems operated by or for us, including system backups and any Service Continuity Backup, and terminates when all such copies have been deleted in accordance with our Privacy Policy.
5.6. Technical Data. Technical Data is collected by SIL and UBSA, who hold all rights in it that may be held in data of that kind. We use it to operate, secure, and improve the Software (Section 6). Where any Technical Data also constitutes your Personal Data, it is treated as your Personal Data and governed by the Privacy Policy; nothing in these Terms transfers ownership of your Personal Data to us.
5.7. Warranties. You warrant that you have the right to contribute all Project Content you enter into Paratext, and that your contributions do not infringe any third party's IP Rights. Your Organization (where applicable) warrants that it holds all rights necessary for the Project Content and Project Metadata in its Projects, including authority from the listed rightsholder for a Project to grant the license in this Section. Breach of any warranty is a ground for suspension or revocation under Section 15. You further warrant that any Project Content shall comply with all applicable laws.
5.8. Feedback. Any feedback you provide is non-confidential and we are free to use it without restriction or obligation to you.
If you believe that content accessible through Paratext infringes your IP Rights, send notice to admin@paratext.org identifying the content and the rights concerned. We review the reports we receive and may restrict or terminate an account, or suspend, restrict, or deregister a Project, where we conclude that infringement has occurred. We will notify the party managing the affected Project before acting and give them a reasonable opportunity to respond, unless we consider immediate action necessary. If any dispute arises regarding your claim that we have violated your IP Rights, we may suspend your account during the longevity of the legal claim, subject to any final court order or settlement agreement.
If a third party notifies you that content you have contributed may infringe their IP Rights, you must notify us promptly at admin@paratext.org and provide reasonable cooperation in relation to the claim. Where the claim concerns content that is shared with or used in other Projects, or where a settlement would restrict our provision of Paratext, you must not admit liability or settle without our prior written consent, which we will not unreasonably withhold or delay. We may participate in the defense and any settlement negotiations at our own cost.
We use Technical Data to monitor and improve performance, understand feature use, generate aggregated statistics for funding partners and the translation community, diagnose technical issues, and develop new features. Processing of Technical Data is covered in our Privacy Policy.
We use Project Content under the license in Section 5 to improve existing Paratext features and develop new Paratext capabilities; we will not use it for any purpose beyond Paratext.
We use Project Metadata to operate the registration and review system, support collaboration, and generate aggregated statistics.
We use Personal Data for service improvement only in de-identified or aggregated form, unless explicit consent is given.
We do not sell, rent, or trade any user data. We do not use your data for advertising without written permission, and do not permit third parties to use Paratext data for advertising. Full detail of data processing is in our Privacy Policy. We are nonprofit organizations and may utilize user data in non-commercial activities.
Registry.
Exported data. If we provide an export function for particular data, you are permitted to export that data and must handle exported data in accordance with any sensitivity markings, license restrictions, or confidentiality obligations that apply to it.
Your use of Project Data with external tools. You must not upload, share or otherwise expose Project Data to any external tool or service without the authorization of the party managing the Project.
Resources. Resources made available through Paratext are licensed to you for use within Paratext only, unless the Resource’s own license terms permit broader use. You must comply with the license terms of the Resources you use. You may not copy, extract, redistribute, or sublicense these Resources outside Paratext without the express permission of the Resource owner. You may not alter a Resource unless expressly licensed to do so.
Some Restricted Resources carry further restrictions – including limits on using them as a source or base text for translation, on sharing material derived from them, and on commercial or fundraising use. Those restrictions are shown with the Resource in Paratext and are also available on request from admin@paratext.org. They form part of these Terms, and you are responsible for reviewing them before using the Resource. Where they are stricter than this Section, they apply.
A Resource license may expire or be terminated. We may withdraw or disable a Resource at any time, and on notice from us you must stop using it and delete any local copies.
8.1 Approved Third-Party Extensions. No Third-Party Extension may be distributed as part of Paratext unless we have reviewed and approved it. Each may have its own terms and privacy policy, which apply in addition to these Terms. This Section does not govern our extensions that are distributed as part of Paratext; for those, see Section 5 and our Privacy Policy.
8.2 User Plugins. A “User Plugin” is any plugin, script, macro, or other code or extension that integrates with Paratext and is NOT an Approved Third-Party Extension. This includes (A) plugins and scripts shared user-to-user in Paratext 9 and earlier, and (B) Extensions that are “side-loaded” in Paratext 10 and not distributed as part of Paratext. We do not create, review, approve or control User Plugins, cannot account for how they handle data, and give no warranty in respect of them. You must not (a) install a User Plugin from a source you do not trust; (b) expose Project Data or another person's Personal Data to a User Plugin without the authorization required by Section 7; or (c) use a User Plugin to circumvent any access control, tier restriction or Resource license restriction. An Organization Administrator may prohibit or restrict User Plugins within their Organization and users must comply.
8.3 Data protection. Where a Third-Party Extension will process Personal Data, we put in place a written data-protection agreement appropriate to the provider's role (a data processing agreement where it acts as our processor, or a controller-to-controller arrangement where it acts as an independent controller). We carry out a Data Protection Impact Assessment where the processing is likely to result in a high risk to individuals.
8.4 Risk. Use of any Third-Party Extension or User Plugin is at your own risk, and where an Organization or Independent Translator permits its use, at theirs. The limitations in Section 13 apply to any resulting loss.
8.5 Indemnification. You agree to hold SIL Global and United Bible Societies Association harmless from any claim that arises out of the use of a “User Plugin,” and you agree to indemnify SIL Global and United Bible Societies Association from any claim, loss, attorneys’ fees, or damages from any claim arising out of your use of a “User Plugin.”
When you use Paratext, you agree to comply at all times with our Acceptable Use Policy. Breach of the Acceptable Use Policy is a breach of these Terms and a ground for suspension or revocation under Section 15.
You are responsible for maintaining the confidentiality of your account credentials and for all activity that occurs under your account. Do not share your account credentials with anyone. If Paratext believes that you have shared your account credentials, Paratext may suspend your account until further notice. Notify us immediately at admin@paratext.org if you become aware of any unauthorized access. If you are an Organization User, also notify your Organization Administrator.
Projects are registered within Paratext to enable online synchronization, collaboration, and access to Translator and Publisher Tier features. When a Project is registered, its Project Metadata is visible to other registered users through the Registry unless marked Confidential.
Where a dispute arises between parties using Paratext (typically about translation competition, project boundaries, or content rights), the parties should first attempt to resolve the matter between themselves. If they cannot, either party may refer the matter to Paratext Administration at admin@paratext.org. Paratext Administration may, after investigation, and in its sole discretion, dismiss the complaint, remove a Project from Publisher Tier, revoke Project registration for copyright infringement, or take action under Section 15 where the conduct of an individual user is at issue.
Projects that are registered within Paratext but that do not further the intended purposes of Paratext licenses (granted in Section 3) may be terminated at any time without notice.
TO THE FULLEST EXTENT PERMITTED BY APPLICABLE LAW, PARATEXT IS PROVIDED ON AN “AS IS” AND “AS AVAILABLE” BASIS, WITHOUT WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF ACCURACY, TRUTHFULNESS, MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE, TITLE, AND NON-INFRINGEMENT. SIL AND UBSA DO NOT WARRANT THAT PARATEXT WILL BE UNINTERRUPTED, TIMELY, SECURE, OR ERROR-FREE, OR THAT DEFECTS WILL BE CORRECTED. NO WARRANTY OF CONTINUOUS ACCESS IS GIVEN.
You are responsible for maintaining your own local backups of any data important to you.
WE ARE NOT RESPONSIBLE FOR DELAYS, INACCURACIES, FAILURES, OR DAMAGE RESULTING FROM MATTERS OUTSIDE OUR CONTROL, INCLUDING ACTS OF GOD, WAR, TERRORISM, CIVIL DISTURBANCE, GOVERNMENT ACTION, INTERNET CONNECTIVITY, THIRD-PARTY HOSTING SERVICES, OR USER HARDWARE.
NOTHING IN THESE TERMS EXCLUDES OR LIMITS THE LIABILITY OF SIL OR UBSA FOR: DEATH OR PERSONAL INJURY CAUSED BY NEGLIGENCE; FRAUD OR FRAUDULENT MISREPRESENTATION; GROSS NEGLIGENCE OR WILLFUL MISCONDUCT; OR ANY OTHER LIABILITY THAT CANNOT BE LIMITED OR EXCLUDED UNDER APPLICABLE LAW.
TO THE FULLEST EXTENT PERMITTED BY LAW, AND EXCEPT FOR THE LIABILITIES STATED IN THE FIRST PARAGRAPH OF THIS SECTION, SIL, UBSA, AND THEIR RESPECTIVE OFFICERS, DIRECTORS, EMPLOYEES, AND AGENTS WILL NOT BE LIABLE FOR ANY INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL, SPECIAL, CONSEQUENTIAL, OR PUNITIVE DAMAGES, OR FOR LOSS OF REVENUE, GOODWILL, OR DATA, ARISING OUT OF OR RELATING TO YOUR USE OF PARATEXT, EVEN IF CAUSED BY OUR OWN NEGLIGENCE AND EVEN IF ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGES.
OUR TOTAL LIABILITY TO YOU FOR ALL CLAIMS RELATING TO PARATEXT, WHETHER ARISING IN CONTRACT, TORT (INCLUDING NEGLIGENCE), OR OTHERWISE, IS LIMITED TO US$1,500 FOR ANY SINGLE CLAIM OR SERIES OF RELATED CLAIMS, AND TO US$5,000 IN TOTAL FOR ALL CLAIMS ARISING AT ANY TIME. THIS LIMIT DOES NOT APPLY TO YOUR OBLIGATIONS UNDER SECTION 14.
YOU AGREE TO INDEMNIFY SIL, UBSA, AND THEIR RESPECTIVE OFFICERS, DIRECTORS, EMPLOYEES, AND AGENTS, TO THE FULLEST EXTENT PERMITTED BY LAW, AGAINST CLAIMS, LIABILITIES, COSTS, EXPENSES, DAMAGES AND LOSSES (INCLUDING REASONABLE ATTORNEYS' FEES) ARISING OUT OF ANY THIRD-PARTY CLAIM THAT PROJECT DATA YOU CONTRIBUTED INFRINGES THAT THIRD PARTY'S INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY RIGHTS. THIS INDEMNITY DOES NOT APPLY TO THE EXTENT THE CLAIM ARISES FROM THE NEGLIGENCE, GROSS NEGLIGENCE, OR WILLFUL MISCONDUCT OF SIL OR UBSA, OR FROM OUR BREACH OF THESE TERMS.
WE MAY CONTROL THE DEFENSE AND SETTLEMENT OF ANY CLAIM SUBJECT TO THIS SECTION. WE WILL NOTIFY YOU PROMPTLY OF ANY SUCH CLAIM, WILL NOT SETTLE IT IN A MANNER THAT IMPOSES A NON-MONETARY OBLIGATION ON YOU OR ADMITS YOUR LIABILITY WITHOUT YOUR PRIOR WRITTEN CONSENT, AND WILL CONSIDER IN GOOD FAITH ANY REPRESENTATIONS YOU MAKE. YOU WILL PROVIDE REASONABLE COOPERATION AT OUR REQUEST.
We reserve the right to investigate suspected violations of these Terms, the Privacy Policy, or the Acceptable Use Policy; to suspend any account where, in our reasonable judgment, there are grounds to suspect a violation, pending investigation; to suspend or terminate your access for any confirmed violation; to refer matters to law enforcement where required; and to remove content that violates these Terms, the Acceptable Use Policy, or applicable law. Account suspension is a temporary measure pending investigation; license revocation is a permanent termination.
Where a user makes only offline, Basic-Tier use of Paratext, our enforcement is necessarily limited to the access and services we control (such as Registry access and Send/Receive); we cannot recall software already installed for offline use, and suspension or revocation takes effect in respect of online access and services.
You may terminate your use of Paratext at any time by ceasing to use the Software and requesting account deletion through the Paratext Registry. Upon termination, your license to use Paratext ends. Project Content you contributed to Projects managed by other users or Organizations will remain accessible to those Projects, subject to their own governance.
We may revise these Terms, the Privacy Policy, or the Acceptable Use Policy from time to time. For all updates, we will post the current versions at:
registry.paratext.org/terms
registry.paratext.org/privacy-policy
registry.paratext.org/acceptable-use
as applicable, and update the effective date.
For material changes we notify registered users by email at least 30 days before the changes take effect. Your continued use of Paratext after the effective date of any change constitutes acceptance; if you do not agree, you must stop using Paratext. Previous versions of the Terms are available on request at admin@paratext.org.
We may modify, update, or discontinue any features of Paratext at any time. If we decide to cease offering Paratext entirely, we will provide at least 90 days’ notice to all registered users and Organization Administrators, and a mechanism for you to export your Project Data. Not providing a notice of changes will not be an actionable violation of these Terms of Service.
On cessation, account-level Personal Data we hold will be returned or destroyed in accordance with applicable data protection law and our Privacy Policy. Personal data already embedded in the revision histories of Project Content is not returnable or destructible on cessation, for the reasons set out in the Privacy Policy, and continues to exist in any preserved copies of those Project histories.
Where you have opted in to the Service Continuity Backup, the arrangements in Section 18 apply to the copy held by the Backup Agent.
18.1 Our own backups. We are committed to the long-term continuity of Paratext and the protection of your translation work. We protect data through internally managed backups held in multiple secure locations. This is automatic and requires no action from you. Personal Data is backed up in accordance with our Privacy Policy.
You remain responsible for maintaining your own local backups of any data important to you (see Section 12).
18.2 The independent backup. An additional independent Service Continuity Backup has been established as a safeguard for the Bible translation community, and comes into operation on 15 October 2026. It is held by the contracted Backup Agent, maintained separately from Paratext's own infrastructure in a secure location and under a strict agreement with the Backup Agent. The Backup Agent will make the backup available only to our nominated continuity partner (currently Mission Mutual, acting on behalf of the ETEN alliance), and only where strict criteria agreed in advance between SIL, UBSA and the Backup Agent are met. Those criteria include a catastrophic and permanent Paratext outage — an unlikely event, but the one this backup exists to guard against.
18.3 What is included. The Service Continuity Backup holds a current copy of a Project's files: the Project Content as it stands at the most recent backup run, excluding revision history. Usernames and email addresses that Paratext records programmatically within those files are removed before the files are transmitted to the Backup Agent.
Content that users have entered themselves, such as project notes or comments, may still contain personal data. The party managing the Project remains responsible for that content, and our processing of it is governed by our Privacy Policy.
18.4 A Project's data is included in this independent backup unless the managing party OPTS OUT.
18.5 Account-level Personal Data is included only if you OPT IN. The Personal Data we hold about you at account level — your name and email address — is not included in the Service Continuity Backup unless you opt in through the Paratext Registry.
18.6 Making and changing your choice. Opt-out and opt-in choices are made through the Paratext Registry and may be changed at any time.
18.7 Commencement. No Project Data is transmitted to the Backup Agent before 15 October 2026, so a managing party that does not wish its Projects to be included has until that date to opt out.
18.8 Invocation. If the Service Continuity Backup is invoked (under the strict, agreed criteria), then the Backup Agent will notify Organization Administrators, Independent Translators, and users who have opted in, of the relevant transition arrangements.
Governing Law. These Terms, and any dispute or claim (including non-contractual disputes or claims) arising out of or relating to them, their subject matter, or their formation, are governed by and construed in accordance with the laws of the State of Texas, United States, without regard to its conflict-of-laws rules. You and we submit to the exclusive jurisdiction of the state and federal courts located in Dallas County, Texas, and waive any objection to venue or forum in those courts, except that we may seek injunctive relief in any court of competent jurisdiction to protect our intellectual property or the security of Paratext. If you are an individual resident in the United Kingdom, the European Economic Area, or Switzerland, nothing in this Section deprives you of the protection of any mandatory consumer-protection or data-protection law of your country of residence, or of any right to bring proceedings in the courts of that country. Because Paratext is owned and operated by nonprofit organizations, as defined by Texas Business and Commerce Code, Chapter 541, the Texas Data Privacy and Security Act does not apply. Furthermore, under applicable definitions of the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act, we do not collect personal data from minors under 13 years of age. Please contact us if you discover minor users under the age of 13.
No third-party beneficiaries. These Terms are for the benefit of you, SIL, and UBSA only, except that a rightsholder specified for a Project in the Registry may enforce the assignment and license granted to it under Section 5. Save for that exception, nothing in these Terms confers any right or remedy on any other person.
Severability. If any provision of these Terms is held invalid or unenforceable, that provision will be enforced to the maximum extent permissible and the remaining provisions will continue in full force and effect.
Neither party is liable for any failure or delay in performance to the extent caused by matters outside its reasonable control, including but not limited to the matters listed in Section 12. No failure or delay by either party in exercising any right or remedy under these Terms operates as a waiver of that right or remedy.
Notices to us must be sent to admin@paratext.org. Notices to you will be sent to the email address associated with your Paratext account. These Terms, together with the Privacy Policy and the Acceptable Use Policy, constitute the entire agreement between you and SIL and UBSA with respect to Paratext, and supersede all prior agreements and understandings.
Questions about these Terms: admin@paratext.org.
SIL Global, 7500 W Camp Wisdom Rd, Dallas, TX 75236, United States.
United Bible Societies Association, Stonehill Green, Westlea, Swindon, Wiltshire, SN5 7PJ, England, United Kingdom.
These Terms of Service were last updated on 11th September 2026.