Acceptable Use Policy

Last updated: October 13, 2026

1. Scope

1.1 Cardinal is a live-video streaming service operated by 1st Flock, LLC (“Cardinal,” “we,” “us,” or “our”). This Acceptable Use Policy (the “AUP”) sets the rules for what may and may not be done with the Service. It is part of the Cardinal Terms of Service (the “Terms”), and capitalized terms not defined here have the meanings given in the Terms.

1.2 This AUP applies to every person and organization that uses the Service in any way: Customers (both Direct Customers and Partners), their users, Partners’ End Customers, Viewers who watch or use chat, and anyone who accesses the API, the Console, the Player, a watch page, or our infrastructure. It applies to every form of use, including Broadcasts, Recordings, titles and descriptions, caption vocabulary, chat and reactions, gift notices, Giving Pages linked from the Player, Restream Destinations, API calls, and embeds.

1.3 You are responsible for everything done through your Account, by anyone, with or without your permission. A Partner is responsible for everything done by its End Customers. A Customer is responsible for what its Viewers do in chat on its Broadcasts to the extent described in the Terms.

1.4 The examples in this AUP are illustrations, not an exhaustive list. Conduct that is not listed but is unlawful, harmful, or inconsistent with the purpose of the Service is also prohibited. We decide, in our reasonable judgment, whether this AUP has been violated.

2. Prohibited content

You may not stream, record, upload, link to, display in chat, or otherwise make available through the Service any content that:

2.1 Is illegal. Content whose creation, possession, distribution, or display violates any applicable law.

2.2 Sexually exploits children. Any content that depicts, describes, promotes, or facilitates the sexual abuse or exploitation of a minor, including child sexual abuse material, sexualized depictions of minors, and grooming. We have zero tolerance for this content. We will remove it, terminate the responsible Account immediately and permanently, preserve the evidence, and report it to the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children (NCMEC) and to law enforcement as required by law. This applies to Partners’ End Customers’ Broadcasts without exception.

2.3 Promotes terrorism or violent extremism. Content that promotes, glorifies, incites, solicits support for, or provides instructional or material support to terrorism, violent extremist organizations, or acts of mass violence, including content produced by or on behalf of designated terrorist organizations.

2.4 Incites or threatens violence. Credible threats of violence against any person or group; incitement to commit violence; instructions for violent acts; or content that celebrates or glorifies violent crimes or their perpetrators.

2.5 Harasses or bullies. Content intended to harass, intimidate, humiliate, or bully a person, including targeted insults, sustained unwanted contact, encouragement of self-harm, and coordinated abuse.

2.6 Is hateful. Content that promotes violence, hatred, or discrimination against people based on race, ethnicity, national origin, religion, caste, sex, gender identity, sexual orientation, disability, serious disease, or immigration status, or that dehumanizes people on those grounds. Religious teaching, debate, and criticism of ideas are permitted; attacks on people are not.

2.7 Is non-consensual intimate imagery or sexual content involving non-consenting persons. Intimate or sexual images or video of a person shared without that person’s consent, including “revenge” content, hidden-camera content, and synthetic or manipulated sexual imagery of a real person. Sexually explicit content generally is also prohibited.

2.8 Infringes intellectual property. Content that infringes any copyright, trademark, patent, trade secret, moral right, or right of publicity, including: streaming films, television, sports events, concerts, or other third-party productions without the broadcasting or retransmission rights to do so; playing music or sound recordings without the performance, synchronization, and streaming licenses required (including any church or worship-streaming license applicable to religious use); using others’ logos or brands to suggest affiliation; and restreaming another party’s content without permission. See the Cardinal Copyright Policy.

2.9 Is fraudulent or deceptive. Scams; phishing; pyramid or Ponzi schemes; fake giveaways; fraudulent fundraising or charitable solicitation; impersonation of a person, organization, or government body; deceptive claims about the source or sponsorship of content; counterfeit goods; or any content designed to mislead people into providing money, credentials, or personal information.

2.10 Is defamatory or violates privacy. Content that defames a person; discloses private information without consent (such as home addresses, phone numbers, financial information, medical information, or government identifiers), known as doxxing; or depicts a person in a private setting without consent.

2.11 Promotes self-harm. Content that promotes, encourages, or provides instructions for suicide, self-injury, or eating disorders.

2.12 Promotes dangerous or illegal activities. Content that sells, promotes, or facilitates illegal drugs, illegal weapons, human trafficking, or other illegal goods or services; or that provides instructions for making weapons or explosives intended to cause harm.

2.13 Contains malicious code. Content, links, or files containing malware, viruses, worms, spyware, or any code designed to damage, interfere with, or gain unauthorized access to any system or data.

2.14 Is spam. Unsolicited bulk or commercial messages; repetitive or irrelevant content posted to disrupt; link farms; or content whose primary purpose is to drive traffic to unrelated sites.

2.15 Involves unlawful gambling or games of chance. Content that conducts or promotes gambling, lotteries, raffles, or sweepstakes that are unlawful where conducted or where participants are located. Lawful, properly licensed charitable raffles remain the Customer’s responsibility to run lawfully.

3. Prohibited conduct

You may not use the Service to:

3.1 Violate the law. Engage in, promote, or facilitate any unlawful activity.

3.2 Impersonate. Pretend to be another person or organization, misrepresent your affiliation with anyone, or use a display name, title, or branding intended to deceive Viewers about who is speaking or streaming.

3.3 Conduct unlawful surveillance or recording. Stream or record people in places or circumstances where they have a reasonable expectation of privacy without consent; record or intercept communications in violation of wiretapping or recording laws; stream or record minors without the consent required by law; or use the Service to monitor or track people without authorization.

3.4 Violate privacy or data-protection law. Collect, store, or process personal information through the Service without a lawful basis and the notices and consents the law requires; use chat, caption vocabulary, titles, or metadata to collect personal information from Viewers for purposes they have not been told about; or pass a Viewer’s name to the Player without authority to do so.

3.5 Harass through chat. Post abusive, threatening, hateful, sexual, or spam content in chat; flood chat; evade a mute or removal; or target other Viewers or the broadcaster.

3.6 Circumvent moderation. Evade or help others evade a Customer’s or our moderation, mutes, blocks, profanity filters, or Account suspension, including by creating new Accounts or identities.

3.7 Misuse Access Codes or links. Share, publish, or sell Access Codes, Ingest Keys, API Keys, or Recording links you are not authorized to share; attempt to guess or brute-force Access Codes; or use a link or code obtained from someone who was not authorized to give it to you.

3.8 Misuse the giving button. Link the giving/tips button to a page that is fraudulent, that misrepresents the beneficiary or the use of funds, that collects payments for an unregistered charitable solicitation where registration is required, that violates the terms of the payment provider, or that is not a giving, tipping, or payment page under your control.

3.9 Use Restream Destinations unlawfully. Forward a Broadcast to a Restream Destination in violation of that destination’s terms, with a stream key you are not authorized to use, or to evade a ban or restriction imposed by the destination.

4. Prohibited use of the API, the Player, and our infrastructure

You may not:

4.1 Access without authorization. Access or attempt to access any Account, data, system, network, or Recording that you are not authorized to access; probe, scan, or test the vulnerability of any system or network; or breach or circumvent any security or authentication measure.

4.2 Test security without written permission. Conduct penetration testing, vulnerability scanning, fuzzing, or any other security testing of the Service without our prior written authorization. If you discover a security issue, report it to us at the address in Section 8 and do not exploit or publicize it.

4.3 Overload or interfere. Send traffic, requests, connections, or streams at a volume or in a pattern intended or likely to overload, disrupt, degrade, or deny service to the Service or any network, server, or other Customer; launch or participate in a denial-of-service attack; or interfere with the Service’s normal operation.

4.4 Circumvent limits or metering. Evade, disable, or interfere with rate limits, connection limits, the 12-hour stream limit, the 15-minute inactivity limit, the restream-destination limit, usage metering, billing, or any other technical restriction, including by using multiple Accounts, rotating keys or addresses, or manipulating timestamps or identifiers.

4.5 Reverse engineer. Reverse engineer, decompile, disassemble, or attempt to derive the source code, protocols, or internal workings of the Service, except to the extent applicable law expressly permits despite this restriction.

4.6 Scrape or harvest. Use automated means to collect data about other Customers, Viewers, Broadcasts, or chat beyond what the API expressly provides for your own Account.

4.7 Mine cryptocurrency or run unrelated workloads. Use any part of the Service, including the Player, chat, API, or any computing resource we provide, to mine or stake cryptocurrency, to run proof-of-work computations, or to run any workload unrelated to streaming your own content.

4.8 Distribute malware. Transmit malware, or use the Service as part of a botnet, command-and-control infrastructure, or malware distribution.

4.9 Falsify identifiers. Forge headers, spoof addresses, or otherwise falsify the origin of any request, stream, or message.

4.10 Misuse webhooks. Configure callbacks that target systems you do not control or that are intended to cause harm to a third party.

4.11 Use the Service as a backup. Use Recordings as an archive, backup, or long-term storage; Recordings are deleted 30 days after they are created.

5. Reselling

5.1 You may not resell, sublicense, rent, lease, time-share, or otherwise provide the Service to third parties as a service, or operate Broadcasts on behalf of third parties, unless we have designated you as a Partner under the Terms. A Direct Customer may stream events it hosts or produces for itself. A Partner may provide the Service only to End Customers as the Terms allow.

6. Partner obligations

6.1 A Partner must: (a) bind each of its End Customers in writing to rules at least as protective of Cardinal as this AUP before the End Customer uses the Service; (b) monitor its End Customers’ use for compliance to a reasonable degree and promptly investigate every report of a violation; (c) remove or end any End Customer Broadcast or content that violates this AUP, and suspend or terminate the End Customer for repeated or serious violations; (d) act immediately on any removal, suspension, or termination request we make concerning an End Customer; (e) keep accurate records identifying the End Customer responsible for each Broadcast and provide them to us on request in connection with an abuse report, legal request, or dispute; (f) provide us with a working abuse contact that we can reach at all times a Broadcast may be live; and (g) cooperate with us and with law enforcement in investigating violations.

6.2 A violation by an End Customer is a violation by the Partner. A Partner that fails to enforce this AUP against its End Customers is itself in breach.

7. Enforcement

7.1 We do not pre-screen content and have no obligation to monitor it. We may investigate any suspected violation, and may review Broadcasts, Recordings, chat, Account records, and API activity for that purpose.

7.2 If we believe this AUP has been violated, or that use of the Service exposes us, our Customers, Viewers, or others to harm or liability, we may take any action we consider appropriate, without notice and without liability to you, including: removing or disabling access to content; ending a live Broadcast; disabling a Recording; removing chat messages or blocking Viewers; disabling Access Codes, Ingest Keys, or API Keys; suspending or terminating an Account or an End Customer’s access; refusing future service; withholding refunds or credits; preserving and disclosing evidence; and reporting conduct to law enforcement, regulators, payment providers, Restream Destinations, hosting providers, or other third parties.

7.3 We may act on a credible report from a third party, on a legal demand, or on our own observation. We may, but need not, give you an opportunity to respond. Our failure to act on one violation is not a waiver of our right to act on another.

7.4 Where we suspend or end a Broadcast under this AUP, Fees incurred remain payable, and the 30-day deletion schedule for Recordings continues to run.

7.5 Where the law requires us to preserve or report content (for example, child sexual abuse material), we will do so regardless of any other provision of this AUP or the Terms.

8. Reporting abuse

8.1 To report a violation of this AUP, email legal@cardinalstreaming.com with: the address of the watch page or embed where you saw the content, or the Account or Broadcast identifier if you know it; the date and time; a description of the content or conduct and why you believe it violates this AUP; and your contact details so we can follow up. For live Broadcasts, please report as quickly as possible; we cannot act on a Broadcast that has ended except with respect to its Recording.

8.2 For copyright complaints, use the procedure in the Cardinal Copyright Policy. For emergencies involving an imminent threat to life, contact local law enforcement first.

8.3 We may share abuse reports with the responsible Customer or Partner, with the reporter’s identity removed unless the reporter consents or the law requires disclosure. We do not guarantee a response to every report.

9. Changes

9.1 We may update this AUP as described in the Terms. Continued use of the Service after an update takes effect means you accept the updated AUP.