These terms are a binding contract between you and Blackout Briefing. They cover the site at blackoutbriefing.com, the briefs, the weekly paper, alerts, accounts, and anything else we publish or operate under that name. If you read the paper, create an account, heart a story, or turn on alerts, you agree to these terms. If you do not agree, do not use the paper.

“Blackout Briefing,” “we,” and “us” mean the operator of this paper and its writers, editors, founders, and agents, including Andrew. “You” means the person or entity using the paper.

Briefs are original journalism and commentary. They are not an official alert, not a government bulletin, and not a substitute for local emergency management, a utility, a physician, a lawyer, an engineer, or a financial adviser. Nothing on the paper is medical, legal, engineering, financial, or survival advice, and nothing on it creates a professional relationship.

You alone decide what to do with what you read. Do not treat a brief, a risk line, a kit list, or an alert as a promise that an event will or will not happen, or as an instruction you must follow. Sources are linked so you can read them yourself. We do not adopt those sources as our own, and we are not responsible for what they say or whether their pages stay up.

The paper is provided “as is” and “as available.” To the fullest extent the law allows, we disclaim every warranty, express or implied, including merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose, title, non-infringement, accuracy, completeness, timeliness, and quiet enjoyment.

We do not warrant that briefs are correct, that alerts will arrive, that the site will be up, that a file or PDF will open, or that reading the paper will keep you, your household, or your property safe. Alerts are a courtesy. They are not a monitored emergency service. Delivery can fail, be late, or stop, and we have no duty to send one.

To the fullest extent permitted by law, Blackout Briefing and its founders, officers, writers, employees, and agents will not be liable for any indirect, incidental, special, consequential, exemplary, or punitive damages, or for lost profits, lost data, business interruption, personal injury, death, or property damage, whether from contract, tort, strict liability, or any other theory, even if we were told the loss was possible. This includes loss from relying on a brief, missing an alert, a wrong fact, a linked source, an outage, unauthorized access to an account, or anything you do or do not do after reading the paper.

If a claim is not excluded, our total liability to you for all claims arising out of the paper will not exceed the greater of fifty U.S. dollars (US $50) or the amount you paid us for the paper in the twelve months before the claim. The account is free. That cap is part of the bargain for a free paper. Some places do not allow certain limits. In those places the limit applies to the maximum extent still allowed.

You will defend, indemnify, and hold harmless Blackout Briefing and its founders, writers, and agents from any claim, loss, damage, liability, and expense (including reasonable attorneys’ fees) arising out of your use of the paper, your account, your breach of these terms, your reliance on a brief, or your copying, republishing, or misuse of our work. We may take exclusive control of the defense, and you will cooperate. You will not settle a claim that admits fault by us or imposes a duty on us without our written consent.

The briefs, headlines, deks, selection, arrangement, weekly paper, layout, name, and marks are owned by Blackout Briefing or its licensors and are protected by copyright, trademark, and other laws. © 2026 Blackout Briefing. All rights reserved.

We give you a personal, limited, revocable, non-exclusive, non-transferable license to read the paper in a browser or the PDF you download for your own private use. You may not copy, republish, syndicate, frame, mirror, scrape, spider, bulk-download, sell, or create derivative works from the paper, and you may not use the briefs or the archive to train, fine-tune, or evaluate a machine-learning model, except with our prior written license. Quoting a short passage with credit and a link, in the ordinary way a critic or a reader does, is allowed. Republishing a brief is not.

If you believe something on the paper infringes a copyright you own, write to griddownai@gmail.com with the work, the URL, your contact information, and a statement under penalty of perjury that you are the owner or the owner’s agent. We may remove material and terminate repeat infringers.

You must give a real email and keep your password to yourself. You are responsible for what happens under your account. We may refuse, suspend, or close an account at any time, including if we believe these terms were broken or the account is being used to copy the paper.

Hearting a story only saves it to that account. It does not give you any right in the brief. We may change, drop, or limit alerts, favorites, the weekly PDF, or any feature without notice and without liability.

You may not break the law with the paper, probe or overload the site, try to reach another person’s account or the operator desk, scrape or harvest emails, misrepresent your affiliation with Blackout Briefing, or use the paper to harm someone. We may block access and keep logs of abuse.

These terms are governed by the laws of the United States and the state where the operator of Blackout Briefing is located, without regard to conflict-of-law rules. Except where a law that cannot be waived says otherwise, you agree that any dispute will be brought only in the state or federal courts in that place, and you consent to personal jurisdiction there. You waive any objection of inconvenient forum.

To the fullest extent permitted by law, you and Blackout Briefing waive the right to a jury trial and the right to bring or join a class, collective, or representative action. If a waiver is held unenforceable for a particular claim, that claim proceeds alone, not as a class. Before filing, you will email griddownai@gmail.com and allow thirty days to try to resolve the dispute.

We may change these terms by posting a new version. The new version applies when you next use the paper after it is posted. If a court cuts one clause, the rest stays in force. Our failure to enforce a term once is not a waiver. These terms, and the Privacy Policy, are the whole agreement on this subject and replace earlier ones. You may not assign them. We may. There are no third-party beneficiaries except the people we named as indemnified.

Contact: griddownai@gmail.com.