paperroute_terms

Terms of service

Effective July 7, 2026. Questions: support@paperroute.gg

These terms cover both sides of PaperRoute: publishers (people who run the desktop app and get paid) and sponsors (people who buy wallpaper ad space). Plain language on purpose. The exact earnings math, rates, and caps live on the transparency page and are part of these terms.

The service

PaperRoute is a Windows app that composites sponsor creatives into the exposed part of your desktop wallpaper, measures how much of that creative was actually visible while you were actively using the machine, and splits the resulting ad revenue with you 50/50. It is opt-in, pausable, and removable; your original wallpaper is backed up before the first composite and restored when you pause, quit, or uninstall.

Publisher terms

  • Earnings. You earn at the public rates on the transparency page, per active-exposed-megapixel-hour, only for minutes when an ad creative is actually displayed. Earnings accrue to an append-only ledger; your balance is the sum of that ledger.
  • Payouts. Payouts require a Stripe Connect account and a balance of at least $10.00. Payout requests go through a review queue before payment. Stripe handles identity verification and banking; we never see those details. If we pay you $600 or more in a calendar year, we file the legally required 1099 form through Stripe.
  • Honest measurement. The system pays for real, human presence on real hardware. Simulating input, running the app on machines nobody uses, tampering with telemetry, spoofing monitor geometry, or running multiple accounts to exceed the 5-device limit is fraud. Devices with anomalous telemetry are flagged automatically and their earnings held pending review; confirmed fraud forfeits held earnings and terminates the account.
  • Caps. Earning stops after 8 active hours per device per UTC day, and exposed area is capped at two 4K monitors. These exist to bound abuse and are published on the transparency page.

Sponsor terms

  • Budgets are prepaid. You deposit into a wallet; ad spend debits it. The wallet ledger is append-only and your spend is always inspectable.
  • Moderation. Creatives are reviewed before they serve and may be rejected or taken down for any content that is illegal, deceptive, adult, hateful, or malware-adjacent. We may decline any campaign.
  • Spend controls. You may set total budgets and optional daily caps. When a daily cap is reached, billing stops for the rest of the UTC day; the creative may continue displaying at no extra charge.
  • Refunds. Unspent budget is refundable on request. Refunds are reviewed by an operator and returned to the original payment method. Spent budget is not refundable.

Acceptable use, both sides

Do not attempt to breach, probe, or overload the service; do not reverse the payout system; do not use PaperRoute to distribute malware or run scams. We may suspend accounts that put users, sponsors, or the platform at risk.

Termination

You can leave at any time: uninstalling restores your wallpaper, and you can request payout of any balance above the minimum plus deletion of your account. We may suspend or terminate accounts for fraud or breach of these terms; lawfully earned balances that are not part of the breach remain payable.

Disclaimers

PaperRoute is provided as-is. We do not guarantee any particular earnings level, sponsor availability, or uninterrupted service. Wallpaper compositing depends on Windows APIs that can change; we promise timely fixes and the wallpaper-restore guarantee, not perfection. To the maximum extent permitted by law, our total liability for any claim is limited to the greater of $100 or the amount in your ledger at the time of the claim.

Payments infrastructure

Payments and payouts are provided by Stripe and are additionally governed by the Stripe Connected Account Agreement. We never hold your funds outside this flow.

Changes and governing law

We may update these terms; material changes will be announced in the changelog before they take effect, and continued use after that is acceptance. These terms are governed by the laws of the United States and the state of PaperRoute's operator. Disputes go first to good-faith email resolution via support@paperroute.gg.