Legal
Museum Terms
Version: 2026-05-31 (v1)
These Museum Terms (the “Terms”) govern a no-cost pilot deployment of the Text the Pastservice (the “Service”) at your museum or cultural institution (the “Museum”). The Service is owned and operated by Authos LLC, a Georgia limited liability company (“Authos”). References to “Text the Past” refer to the Service, not to a separate legal entity.
By checking the acceptance box on the museum signup form, the person submitting the form represents that they are authorized to bind the Museum, and the Museum agrees to these Terms. Acceptance is recorded with a timestamp and the version above. A countersigned agreement remains available on request for institutions whose procurement requires one.
1. The Service
The Service lets a Museum's visitors text a photo of an artifact and a question to a dedicated phone number and receive an AI-generated reply. Authos deploys the Service at no cost to the Museum during the pilot and provides branded signage at no cost.
2. Content License
The Museum grants Authos a non-exclusive, non-transferable, royalty-free, revocable license, for the duration of the Museum's participation, to (a) reproduce, store, and process the artifact descriptions, historical text, and reference photographs the Museum provides (the “Museum Content”) within Authos's production database and AI inference infrastructure; (b) generate vector embeddings and other derived representations solely to operate the Service; and (c) display excerpts of the Museum Content to visitors in response to visitor-initiated SMS or MMS inquiries. The Museum retains all right, title, and interest in the Museum Content, including all copyright. This license terminates automatically when participation ends, after which Authos deletes the Museum Content and its derived representations from production within seven (7) days (backups within thirty (30) days). Authos will not use the Museum Content to train any general-purpose model, nor sell or transfer it to any third party.
3. Museum Representations
The Museum represents and warrants that it owns or has the right to license the Museum Content and that it does not infringe any third party's intellectual property rights, and will indemnify Authos against any third-party claim arising from a breach of this Section.
4. How the AI Generates Replies (and its limits)
Replies are generated by an AI model that draws on three sources, in priority order: (1) the Museum's own curated artifact record, which is authoritative for that artifact and which the model is instructed not to contradict; (2) the photo the visitor sends; and (3) the AI model's general historical, cultural, and technical knowledge, used when the first two do not fully answer a question and constrained to stay consistent with the Museum record's era, region, and object type. The Service does not draw onlyon the Museum's text; the broader historical context is an intentional, disclosed part of how the Service answers, and the same description appears in the consumer Privacy Policy. AI-generated replies are probabilistic and may occasionally contain errors despite commercially reasonable efforts to keep them grounded. The Museum agrees to promptly notify Authos of any inaccuracy or complaint it learns of.
5. Sponsor Attribution and Reporting
The Service is funded by a local business sponsor whose brand appears as a brief “Powered by [Sponsor]” line on text replies and signage. The Museum may request removal of any sponsor attribution it finds inconsistent with its mission; Authos honors the request within seven (7) days. The Museum authorizes Authos to provide each active sponsor a periodic engagement report containing only aggregate usage metrics, at most one reference image per month, at most one anonymized example question with the verbatim reply, and up to three additional anonymized questions. Authos never gives sponsors raw inbound messages, raw or hashed visitor phone numbers, or visitor photographs.
6. Off-Premises Sponsor Poster (Optional, Opt-In)
If, and only if, the Museum affirmatively opts in at signup, the Museum consents that a sponsor of the Museum's deployment may display, at the sponsor's own place of business, a poster reading “Proud Sponsor of [Museum display name]” (Museum name only; no Museum logo; no claim of Museum endorsement of the sponsor's products or services). Authos prints and ships this poster to the sponsor at no cost to the Museum. This consent is optional and revocable: if the Museum does not opt in, no Museum-named poster is offered to sponsors. The Museum may revoke at any time by writing legal@textthepast.com; on revocation Authos ceases offering and printing new Museum-named posters and requests removal of any already displayed, though it cannot guarantee immediate physical recall of an already-shipped printed poster.
7. Data Handling
Authos collects from visitors only the visitor's mobile number, message text, and any attached photo. Phone numbers are hashed with HMAC-SHA256 before any persistent storage; raw numbers are not stored at rest. Visitor message content is retained for no more than ninety (90) days and is never shared with third parties for marketing.
8. Donation
In recognition of the Museum's participation, Authos intends to make an annual donation equal to the lesser of (i) 25% of net revenue collected from the Museum's sponsor or (ii) $200 per twelve-month term. This Section expresses non-binding intent.
9. Term and Termination
The pilot begins on acceptance and continues until either party ends it. Either party may terminate at any time, with or without cause, on thirty (30) days written notice (the Museum may terminate immediately for a material Authos breach of Section 2 or Section 7). On termination, Section 2's deletion obligation applies.
10. Disclaimers; Limitation of Liability
THE SERVICE IS PROVIDED ON A NO-COST PILOT BASIS “AS IS.” EXCEPT FOR GROSS NEGLIGENCE OR WILLFUL MISCONDUCT, NEITHER PARTY IS LIABLE FOR INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL, SPECIAL, CONSEQUENTIAL, OR PUNITIVE DAMAGES, AND EACH PARTY'S TOTAL AGGREGATE LIABILITY WILL NOT EXCEED ONE THOUSAND U.S. DOLLARS ($1,000).
11. General
These Terms are governed by the laws of the State of Georgia. Authos and the Museum are independent contractors. Authos may update these Terms by posting a new version; the version in effect at the Museum's acceptance governs the then-current term.
Text the Past is a product of Authos LLC, a Georgia limited liability company. Legal: legal@textthepast.com | Support: contact@textthepast.com