These terms govern the use of this website and of the machines rented through it. They are written to be read, not to be survived.
LYT AS, organisation number 932 759 942, Sikveien 2, 1481 Hagan, Norway. Written questions and all requests under this policy: node@lyt.no.
This document is published in English only. The English text is the authoritative version. These terms are governed by Norwegian law, and disputes belong before the Norwegian courts. If you are a consumer, this does not take away any protection you have under the mandatory law of the country you live in.
We rent computing capacity by the hour or by the day: Linux machines, GPU machines and Mac machines, provisioned on demand with an expiry time you set when you order. The catalogue states, for each class, what hardware you get, which jurisdiction the machine physically sits in, and the price.
The jurisdiction shown in the catalogue is a commitment, not a preference. If we cannot deliver in the jurisdiction you chose, we refuse the order. We do not quietly substitute a machine somewhere else.
Every machine is created with an expiry time. This is not a setting you can switch off, and it protects both of us: a forgotten machine is a disputed invoice. We warn you an hour before the expiry, and again fifteen minutes before.
Nothing is destroyed at the expiry itself. By default the machine is held for 48 hours, so work you have not collected is still there, and during that time you can fetch it, extend, or release the machine. A held machine is billed at twice the price for its first day on hold and three times for its second, because it occupies hardware nobody else can rent. When the 48 hours are over, it is deleted.
If you extend before the expiry, none of that applies: the extension is measured from the current expiry, so extending early costs nothing extra.
You cannot recover a machine after it has been deleted, and neither can we. Deletion is deletion, not a recycle bin.
Mac machines carry a minimum rental of 24 hours. That is required by Apple's licence terms. See "Mac machines and Apple's licence" below.
We prepare the machine before handing it over. After handover it joins your own network and we are not in it. We do not hold credentials to your machine and we do not read what is on it.
That cuts both ways, and you should plan for it: we cannot recover your work, reset your password, or rescue a machine you have locked yourself out of. Take your own backups, and bring your work home before the machine expires.
A Mac runs Apple's macOS, and Apple allows it to be rented out only on Apple's own conditions, set out in Section 3 of the macOS Software License Agreement. We follow them, and so do you when you rent a Mac. Read the agreement itself through the links below. If this page and Apple's agreement differ, Apple's agreement governs the use of macOS.
One customer, the whole machine. A Mac is rented to one customer at a time, as a whole machine. We do not share one physical Mac between two customers.
At least 24 hours. Every Mac is rented for at least 24 consecutive hours, and is billed per started day.
Software development only. You may use a rented Mac only to develop software: building software from source, automated testing during software development, and running the developer tools needed for that. You may not use it for service bureau, time-sharing, terminal sharing or similar services for other people.
No virtual Macs of your own. You may not start your own virtual macOS machines on a rented Mac. Apple allows only one side, the lessor or the lessee, to run extra copies of macOS on a leased Mac, and we may use that allowance to give you access. Running an iOS simulator is not a virtual macOS machine and is allowed.
Apple's licence applies to you. By renting a Mac you agree to be bound by Apple's macOS Software License Agreement, and by the terms of the software preinstalled on it, including Apple's Xcode.
How the Mac was set up. A Mac may have been configured before it reached you, including settings for analytics, location services and other privacy and data collection features. Apple is not responsible for how it was configured.
If the licence is broken. If you break Apple's licence, your right to use the Apple software ends automatically, and we must end your use of it at once when we find out or when Apple tells us. We are also required to help Apple enforce the licence.
Who rents the Mac to you. Where we rent a Mac from a partner, the partner and we are both lessors under Apple's licence. The licence requires each lessor to notify Apple before renting out a Mac.
You are responsible for what runs on machines you rent. You may not use them to attack other systems, to send unsolicited bulk email, to host or distribute material that is unlawful where the machine sits, or to break the terms of software you install on them — including Apple's licence terms on Mac machines.
If we are told that a machine of yours is doing one of these things, we will contact you first where we safely can. Where we cannot — an ongoing attack, a legal order, a threat to other customers — we may suspend the machine immediately and tell you afterwards, with the reason.
The minimum rental stated for the class is billed once per rental: 30 minutes for most classes and an hour for GPU. After that, the time a machine has run is rounded up to the next half hour. Classes billed daily, which includes every Mac, are billed per started day.
When a machine starts, we reserve its price on your card: up to midnight Norwegian time on the first day, and again for each day the machine keeps running. Nothing is taken when we reserve. We charge what was actually used every night, and at once when you release a machine. A Mac is paid a day at a time instead: its first day is reserved when you order and charged when the Mac is ready, and each further day is charged as it begins. An order the card cannot cover is refused before anything starts.
If a later reservation or charge is refused, we tell you by email, and the machine is released two hours later unless payment has gone through by then. We try the card once more shortly before that, so a card topped up in time keeps the machine, unless the card's bank has asked us not to try it again. Update your card and we try again at once. The 48-hour hold does not apply in that case.
If an amount you owe is refused, we try the card again every third day for up to 60 days, and at once if you update your card. If the card's bank asks us not to try it again, we stop.
The price is fixed for each period you have started. A machine billed by the day keeps its price for that whole day; one billed by the hour keeps it for that hour. We never change the price of a period that has already begun, and you are never charged a new price for time already run.
When a period renews, it renews at the catalogue price in effect at that moment. Our own supplier costs move, sometimes sharply and with no warning to us, and this is how that reaches you: at a renewal you can see coming, never in the middle of one you are already paying for.
You can release a machine at any time. A price you do not want to pay is therefore never a price you are stuck with — the longest you are ever committed is the period you have started.
We may change catalogue prices at any time.
Payment is not open yet. When it opens it will be by card through Stripe. Until then nothing on this site can charge you.
We do not offer a service level agreement today, and we would rather say so than publish one we have not earned. Capacity depends on suppliers who sometimes run out; when they do, an order fails clearly and immediately rather than being held.
The service is provided as it is. To the extent the law allows, we exclude implied warranties of merchantability and fitness for a particular purpose.
Our total liability to you for any claim connected with the service is limited to the amount you paid us for the machine the claim concerns, in the three months before the claim arose.
We are not liable for indirect or consequential loss, loss of profit, or loss of data, except where the loss was caused by our gross negligence or wilful misconduct, or where the law does not allow such a limit — which includes death and personal injury, and rights you have as a consumer.
You may stop using the service at any time by letting your machines expire or releasing them, and by asking us to close your account.
We may close your account if you break these terms in a way you do not fix after we ask, if we are required to by law, or if we stop offering the service. Except where the law or an ongoing abuse makes it impossible, we will give you notice and time to bring your work home.
We will give at least 30 days' notice by email before a change that affects you takes effect. If you do not accept it, you may close your account before it does. Continuing to use the service after that date means you accept the new terms.