Version of 25 October 2026
Former name of the service: "Skazkovedenie".
Translation notice. This is an English translation of the Russian-language Terms of Use published at https://fabulotheca.org/terms. It is provided for the convenience of users who do not read Russian. The Russian text is the only legally binding version; if the two texts differ in any way, the Russian text prevails. Section numbers are identical in both texts.
Operator: Anastasia Sergeevna Lyzlova, a citizen of the Russian Federation, an individual applying the special tax regime "Tax on Professional Income" (Federal Law of 27 November 2018 No. 422-FZ).
These Terms are not a public offer. Information about the Service is an invitation to make offers (clause 1 of Article 437 of the Civil Code of the Russian Federation). The contract is considered concluded from the moment the Operator issues a Token.
Service — the Operator's software and hardware system designed for search queries over an indexed corpus of scholarly sources on folklore studies.
User — a natural person who has received a Token.
Token — a personal access identifier.
Personal Account — the User's web page, available at a personal link. The Personal Account permanently contains the current version of these Terms, the Tariffs, the balance of Requests and their expiry date, and the search page (clause 2.5).
Request — the unit in which the service is counted. A Request is used up at the moment of a Disclosure (including a Continuation) and only if at least one Fragment is provided. A Search after which the User has not requested a Disclosure does not use up a Request. Calls rejected because of an invalid Token, an exhausted balance of Requests, or the triggering of the limits in Section 7 do not use up a Request.
Package — a paid quantity of Requests with a fixed period of validity.
Source — a separate publication (article, monograph, collection, reference book) included in the Service's corpus and having its own identifier in the Operator's register.
Fragment — an excerpt of the text of a Source of no more than 1,000 printed characters, provided together with the Attribution and suitable for quotation with an indication of the author and the source of the borrowing.
Match Line — an intermediate, technical result of the first stage of the process (clause 2.2): one sentence or part of one, containing what was found in its immediate surroundings. It is provided without Attribution and without information about the Source, solely so that the User can assess how well it corresponds to the query and proceed to the final stage. A Match Line is not a quotation, has no independent value and cannot be used for quotation, because it contains no indication of the author and source.
Search — a call to the Service's search interface the result of which is a list of Match Lines. A Search is not charged.
Disclosure — provision of Fragments with Attribution for the list items selected by the User. A Disclosure uses up one Request regardless of the number of Fragments provided.
Continuation — a kind of Disclosure: provision of Fragments of the same Source that directly follow or precede the selected list item, so that the place found can be read in the context of the surrounding text (clause 7.6).
Attribution — information about the Source: details of responsibility (the author; for collections, edited volumes and periodicals, the compiler, editor or publishing organisation with an indication of the role), title, year of publication (if absent, the note "n.d."), edition or imprint, and, where available in the Operator's register, a DOI or the address of the Source's public page, the name of the institution in which the Source is available, and the bibliographic description drawn up by that institution.
Source Budget — the maximum number of Fragments that may be provided to a User from a single Source (clause 7.5).
2.1. The Operator provides the User with paid access to the computing resources of the Service (server capacity, a vector database, a vectorisation model) for carrying out search Requests over a corpus of scholarly sources.
2.2. The service is a single process whose result is a Fragment with Attribution, that is, a quotation suitable for use in scholarly work with an indication of the author and the source of the borrowing.
The process consists of successive stages:
Stages 1 and 2 have no independent value and exist solely so that at stage 3 the User receives exactly the material needed, without using up Requests on material that is evidently unsuitable.
2.3. Full texts of works and files of Sources are not provided by the Service at any stage.
2.4. Payment is made for a computing service and for maintaining the Service. It is not payment for works, nor a licence or sublicence. No rights to works of third parties are transferred to the User. The exclusive rights to the indexed materials belong to their authors and other right holders.
2.5. The Service can be used in two ways:
The stages of the process (clause 2.2), the counting of Requests and the limits in Section 7 are the same for both ways; the balance of Requests and the limits are shared by the User across both.
3.1. Access is granted on application through a form on the website. The application states: surname, given name and patronymic; e-mail address; academic status; research topic. Before filling in the application the User reads these Terms and the separate document "Consent to the Processing of Personal Data" (both are placed on the application page and must be read to the end); the application is accepted only after a separate mark of acceptance of the Terms, a separate mark giving consent, and a mark confirming that the User will check Fragments against the primary source independently and is responsible for the quotation (Section 12).
3.2. The application is an offer by the User. Acceptance is the issue of a Token.
3.3. Each application is considered by the Operator individually. The time for consideration is up to 7 calendar days. The Operator may refuse without detailed reasons if the application does not correspond to the purposes of the Service or creates legal, reputational or technical risks. A refusal is communicated by e-mail.
3.4. On a positive decision, the User is sent a link to the Personal Account, in which the Token, these Terms, the Tariffs, the search page and the instructions for connecting to a language model are placed.
3.5. The amount and procedure of payment are determined by the Tariffs placed in the Personal Account. The Operator may set individual payment terms for particular Users.
3.6. The Token is personal. The Operator may request additional information about the scholarly or educational nature of the use.
4.1. The unit of account is the Request. Access is provided by purchasing Packages.
4.2. Payment is in advance. A Package is credited after the payment is received. The Operator issues a receipt in accordance with Federal Law No. 422-FZ.
4.3. The Package is valid for 90 calendar days from the date of crediting. When the period expires, unused Requests lapse. The User sees the balance of Requests and the date of lapse in the Personal Account.
4.4. Packages are cumulative. Purchase of a new Package resets the Source Budgets (clause 7.5) used up earlier.
4.5. The Tariffs are placed in the Appendix to these Terms, in the Personal Account and on the Service's website. The Operator may change the Tariffs. A change of Tariffs does not affect Packages purchased earlier: they remain valid on the terms that existed on the date of payment.
4.6. When the balance of Requests is exhausted or the validity period of the Packages expires, the provision of Fragments stops. Access is restored by purchasing a new Package.
4.7. Trial period. Until 1 January 2027 the Service operates in trial mode: Requests are not charged, and the limits in Section 7 apply in full. The User is notified that during this period interruptions in operation, errors in results and changes to the interface are possible, and that the Operator is not responsible for their consequences. The Operator will notify the User by e-mail of the end of the trial period no later than 7 calendar days in advance.
4.8. Contribution to the development of the project. The User may voluntarily transfer money to the Operator for the development of the Service. Such a contribution is not payment for services, gives rise to no counter-obligations of the Operator, is not converted into Requests and does not affect the scope or terms of access. The contribution is not refundable. Making or not making a contribution has no effect on the service provided to the User.
4.9. Free Requests. Each User is provided each calendar month with the number of free Requests stated in the Appendix "Tariffs". Free Requests are used only when the User has no valid balance of paid Requests, are not carried over to the next month and cannot be exchanged for money. The calendar month is counted in Moscow time.
5.1. The Service is intended exclusively for the User's personal scholarly research and educational activity.
5.2. Only Fragments with Attribution are provided. Full texts and files of Sources are not provided.
5.3. The volume of quotation that is justified by the purpose of the quotation (sub-clause 1 of clause 1 of Article 1274 of the Civil Code of the Russian Federation) is determined by the User. The Operator has no information about the content and purposes of the User's work and does not assess whether the User's use of the Fragments received is justified. The limits in Section 7 are technical and do not replace the User's obligation to comply with the requirements of copyright law.
5.4. Attribution is generated automatically. The Operator does not guarantee that it is error-free. The User must check the information against the original.
5.5. A significant part of the corpus has been digitised by optical character recognition (OCR). The quality of recognition may be low. A Fragment from an OCR Source is not an exact reproduction of the original and cannot be used as a quotation in a publication without independent checking. Such Fragments carry a technical note.
5.6. The Operator is not liable for losses arising from inaccuracies in Fragments or Attribution (including refusal of publication and claims of improper quotation). Correction of recognised texts is not among the Operator's obligations.
6.1. Fragments are provided under the right of free quotation (sub-clause 1 of clause 1 of Article 1274 of the Civil Code of the Russian Federation) for scholarly, polemical, critical, informational and educational purposes, with mandatory indication of the author and the source of the borrowing.
6.2. The process described in clause 2.2 is arranged so that any text suitable for use leaves the Service only together with its Attribution. The intermediate stages ensure the accuracy of the selection of material and do not create an independent result: a Match Line contains no information about the Source and therefore can neither replace it nor be quoted. In this way the condition of Article 1274 of the Civil Code of the Russian Federation, the indication of the author and the source, is met for every result of the service without exception.
6.3. The legislation of the Russian Federation applies.
6.4. Access to the Service is not public: it is provided to a defined circle of persons on individually considered applications, in connection with the declared scholarly topic. The limits in Section 7 are set by the Operator as technical thresholds ensuring compliance with Article 1274 of the Civil Code of the Russian Federation.
6.5. The Service does not reproduce works in full or in a substantial part, does not provide files of Sources and does not systematically derive profit from the distribution of works.
The limits are implemented in the server code and applied before data is passed to the User. They are distributed across the stages of the process (clause 2.2) and together ensure that the final stage, Disclosure, always yields text with Attribution and in a volume that does not replace the Source.
7.1. The limits of this Section apply to all Sources uniformly.
7.2. The volume of one Fragment is no more than 1,000 characters including spaces, cut at a sentence boundary. A Fragment is assembled from successive parts of the text of the Source starting from the place found. As a guide, a Fragment is 700 to 1,000 characters; it may be shorter if the text of the Source ends sooner.
7.3. A Fragment and its Attribution form a single object. A Fragment is provided only if the Attribution contains the title, details of responsibility, and at least one item of information that makes it possible to find the Source in order to check the quotation: a DOI or the address of a public page, the name of the institution in which the Source is available, the imprint or the edition. If this information is insufficient, the Fragment is not provided. The technical note on OCR origin cannot be switched off.
7.4. List of Match Lines. A single Search yields no more than 50 Match Lines, the closest to the query in the assessment of the search mechanism. The list is intended for the User to assess whether what was found corresponds to the User's task.
Match Lines are provided without Attribution. The requirement of clause 7.3 does not apply to them: a Match Line contains no indication of the author and source and therefore is unsuitable for quotation and cannot replace the Source.
If the query contains a tale-type number from a generally accepted index of tale types, or a phrase enclosed in quotation marks, the list contains only places in Sources where that number or that phrase occurs. In this case the User is told the total number of such places, and the list may be browsed successively in parts of no more than 50 Match Lines. Obtaining each part is a separate Search and is counted in the limits of clause 7.7.
The list may be accompanied by technical notes: a conventional mark showing that several Match Lines belong to one Source; an indication of the type of Source (collection of texts, research, index, mixed publication); an indication that the same text is contained in other Sources as well. These notes are not Attribution and do not make it possible to establish the author or the Source.
The items of the list are available for Disclosure for 24 hours from the moment of the Search.
7.5. Source Budget: no more than 30 Fragments from one Source within the valid balance of Requests. Fragments are counted in the same way regardless of their location in the text of the Source. When the Budget is exhausted, the provision of Fragments from that Source stops; the Attribution and information about the Source continue to be provided. Source Budgets are reset when a new Package is purchased (clause 4.4).
7.6. A single Disclosure provides no more than 10 Fragments. A Continuation provides no more than 10 Fragments of the same Source for one Request. Fragments obtained by a Continuation are counted in the Source Budget (clause 7.5) in the same way as any others.
7.7. Limits on the frequency and volume of calls. To prevent automated mass extraction, the Operator sets for each Token a maximum number of Searches per hour and per day, a maximum number of Disclosures per day, a maximum number of different Sources whose Fragments may be provided within 30 days, and a maximum frequency of calls. The values of the limits are given in the Appendix "Limits"; they are set above the needs of ordinary research work. A day is counted in Moscow time.
When a limit is being approached, the Service warns the User. A call above the limit is rejected with a message stating the reason and the time at which the limit will cease to apply; a rejected call does not use up a Request.
The Operator may change the values in the Appendix "Limits". A change that tightens the limits for all Users takes effect no earlier than 7 calendar days after Users are notified by e-mail. This does not limit the Operator's right to suspend a particular Token immediately under clause 8.3.
7.8. Files of Sources and full texts are not provided under any conditions.
7.9. A record of calls (Token identifier, time, Source identifier, volume provided, whether limits were applied) is kept for 6 months. The texts of Requests, Match Lines and Fragments are not stored.
7.10. The source code of the provision mechanisms (cutting of a Fragment, clause 7.2; Attribution and the OCR note, clause 7.3; formation of a Match Line, clause 7.4; the Source Budget, clause 7.5; limiting of call frequency, clause 7.7; and the record of calls, clause 7.9), together with their numerical thresholds and tests, is published on the Service's website at the address stated in the details above, with a checksum of the published version. Publication of the code does not transfer any right to use it commercially.
8.1. The User undertakes to use the Service only for the purposes of clause 5.1 and, when using Fragments, to indicate the author and the source of the borrowing to the extent of the Attribution.
8.2. The User is prohibited from:
8.3. In case of a breach of this Section the Operator may suspend or terminate the Token. If it is terminated through the User's fault, the value of unused Requests is not refunded.
9.1. The Operator maintains a register of Sources. The Operator gives no legal opinions and does not guarantee that the information on the legal status of Sources is exhaustive. The User independently checks the legal status of a Source, the currency of the Attribution and whether a retraction exists.
9.2. A claim by a right holder is sent to the Operator's e-mail or postal address given in the details. The period for consideration is 10 working days. From the receipt of a reasoned claim, the provision of Fragments from the disputed Source is suspended for the period of consideration, but for no more than 30 calendar days. If the claim is upheld, the Source is added to a stop list and the provision of Fragments from it ceases.
9.3. The Operator is not liable for Fragments provided before a claim was received, within the limits of Section 7, or for the User's use of Fragments after the legal status of a Source has changed.
10.1. The following data are processed: surname, given name and patronymic; e-mail address; information on academic status; research topic; Token identifier; service records of calls to the Service; technical data received automatically when the website and the Service are accessed (IP address, type of browser and device, date and time of the call).
10.2. The Operator does not receive or store the details of Users' bank cards and accounts. The information that the bank shows to the recipient of a transfer (the payer's name, the amount, the payment code) is used by the Operator only to credit a Package and to record income.
10.3. The legal basis for processing is performance of a contract to which the data subject is a party (clause 5 of part 1 of Article 6 of Federal Law No. 152-FZ), and also the data subject's consent where it is required.
10.4. Retention periods: service records of calls, 6 months; web-server logs with IP addresses, 14 days; application data, 1 year from the end of the Token's validity; data on rejected applications, 6 months; accounting and tax documents, for the periods established by law.
10.5. Processing takes place on the territory of the Russian Federation. No cross-border transfer takes place. No transfer to third parties takes place, except in cases expressly provided for by law.
10.6. Consent to the processing of personal data is drawn up as a separate document and is given by a separate mark in the electronic application form, independently of acceptance of these Terms. The Operator keeps the date and time of the application and the versions of both documents, the Terms and the Consent, with which the User became acquainted and to which the User agreed.
10.7. The User has the right to receive information about the processing of the User's data, to demand that it be corrected, blocked or destroyed, to withdraw consent, and to appeal against the Operator's actions to Roskomnadzor or to a court.
10.8. The Operator sends a notification of personal data processing to Roskomnadzor under Article 22 of Federal Law No. 152-FZ before processing begins.
10.9. The detailed procedure is set out in the Personal Data Processing Policy published on the Service's website.
11.1. The Service is provided "as is". The Operator does not guarantee the completeness of the corpus, uninterrupted operation, or the suitability of the results for the User's particular task.
11.2. The Operator is not liable for the impossibility of using the Service as a result of changes in third-party language models and platforms through which the User connects to the Service.
11.3. The Operator's liability is limited to the cost of services paid for but not rendered and, in any case, to actual damage, but not more than 10,000 roubles per incident, unless otherwise established by mandatory rules of law.
11.4. The parties are released from liability in circumstances of force majeure, including the actions of the hosting provider and of state bodies and changes in regulation.
11.5. The Operator may discontinue the services by notifying Users not less than 30 calendar days in advance. In that case the value of unused Requests is refunded proportionately on the User's written request.
11.6. In cases other than termination through the User's fault (clause 8.3), a refund is made in proportion to unused Requests on written request to the Operator.
11.7. The Operator is a self-employed individual, not registered as an individual entrepreneur or a legal entity, and has no employees. The Service is the result of personal scholarly research activity. The Operator may change her legal status by notifying Users 30 calendar days in advance; a change of status does not in itself give a right to terminate the contract or to a refund, if the services continue to be provided.
11.8. The Service is not intended for persons under 18.
11.9. The Operator may change these Terms. The current version is published on the website and in the Personal Account. Material changes are communicated to Users in advance by e-mail.
11.10. Disputes are resolved in accordance with the legislation of the Russian Federation. A claim is brought at the location of the defendant in accordance with Article 28 of the Code of Civil Procedure of the Russian Federation, unless the law establishes a different jurisdiction.
By activating the Token the User confirms that:
Until the end of the trial period (until 1 January 2027, clause 4.7) Requests are not charged and the purchase of Packages is not provided for.
The Tariffs for Packages of Requests will be published in this Appendix no later than 7 calendar days before the end of the trial period; the Operator will additionally notify the User of the publication by e-mail. The Tariffs take effect at the end of the trial period.
A Package is valid for 90 calendar days from the date it is credited (clause 4.3). Packages are cumulative (clause 4.4). Unused Requests lapse when the period expires.
Free Requests (clause 4.9): 5 in each calendar month after the end of the trial period.
In effect from 5 October 2026 (clause 7.7)
| Limit | Value |
|---|---|
| Searches per Token | no more than 20 per hour and 80 per day |
| Disclosures (including Continuations) per Token | no more than 25 per day |
| Different Sources whose Fragments have been provided to one Token | no more than 150 in the last 30 days |
| Frequency of calls | no more than 5 per 10 seconds |
| Match Lines in one list (part of a list) | no more than 50 |
| Fragments per one Disclosure or Continuation | no more than 10 |
| Fragments from one Source (Source Budget, clause 7.5) | no more than 30 |
A day and a calendar month are counted in Moscow time. A warning that a limit is being approached is sent when 80% of the daily limit is reached.