Effective Date: 12 October 2026 • Version 2.2
By accessing, subscribing to, or browsing Republic Square (accessible at https://thersq.org) or utilising any associated publications, investigative reports, articles, editorial commentary, or materials (collectively, the "Service"), you agree to be legally bound by these Terms of Service ("Terms") between yourself ("User", "Subscriber", or "You") and Dinidu de Alwis ("Republic Square" or "RSQ").
If you do not agree to these Terms in their entirety, you must discontinue access to the Service immediately.
Republic Square is an independent, deeply-researched investigative journalism and editorial research publication platform focusing on Sri Lanka and the wider Indian Ocean region. The platform publishes premium investigative journalism, in-depth public-interest reporting, political-economic analysis, institutional case studies, and editorial trackers presented in a curated 12-tile publication deck.
Republic Square operates strictly and exclusively as a journalistic publishing endeavour under recognised freedom of expression and public-interest reporting principles. Subscriptions cover digital readership and access to published editorial journalism produced via rigorous documentary research, public-record verification, and standard journalistic inquiry.
RSQ believes and promotes people's right to make decisions about their own lives, free of undue interference by regulatory and legislative frameworks: this includes civil liberties, freedom to trade, and economic independence.
All investigative reports, macroeconomic commentary, articles, and situational assessments provided across the Service are published solely for editorial, educational, and public-interest journalistic purposes. Nothing published on Republic Square constitutes legal, investment, financial, securities, tax, military, or professional advisory services. You assume sole responsibility for any independent evaluations or actions taken based on materials published on the Service.
Republic Square offers tiered digital publication subscription access, payable by card (via Paddle), by direct bank transfer, or by a Payoneer payment request:
Payment Processing & Card Security: Card payments are processed directly by Paddle.com on PCI-DSS Level 1 certified infrastructure. RSQ never sees, receives, accesses, or stores your credit or debit card numbers under any circumstances. Bank transfers settle directly between the subscriber’s bank and RSQ’s bank account, and Payoneer payment requests are settled through Payoneer — in both cases RSQ receives only the amount, a reference, and confirmation of payment, never your bank or card credentials.
Direct Bank Transfer & Payoneer: Annual Prepaid, Enterprise, and other subscriptions may alternatively be settled by direct bank transfer or by a Payoneer payment request. Contact me@dinidu.org for wire or Payoneer details and invoicing.
Cancellations & Prorated Refunds: Subscribers may cancel recurring renewals at any time through the self-service Paddle Customer Portal (card subscribers; linked in all card payment receipts) or by contacting RSQ’s operational desk at publishing@dinidu.org. In the event of early cancellation of an Annual Prepaid subscription, elapsed months of usage are assessed at the standard monthly rate in effect at the time of initial purchase, and the remaining prepaid balance is promptly refunded via the original payment method — through Paddle for card payments, or back through the channel used for bank transfers and Payoneer payments. Month-to-month passes are non-refundable for the active monthly cycle.
RSQ offers free reader accounts. A free reader receives five (5) unlocks of subscriber reports on registration, then three (3) further unlocks in each rolling thirty (30) day window. A report unlocked with a free read remains permanently available to that account. Free reader accounts do not carry the gift-article privilege. RSQ records which reports a reader has unlocked, and when, solely to grant and enforce this allowance — as described in the Privacy Policy.
RSQ’s handling of personal data — account and subscription details, device tokens, free-read meter and unlock records, email preferences, gift-recipient addresses, and newsletter delivery records — is governed by the Privacy Policy, which forms part of these Terms. RSQ does not sell personal data and does not run advertising trackers, and it does not keep a page-view or dwell-time history of individual readers.
To preserve subscription integrity without intrusive surveillance, Republic Square counts devices using a blind, one-way device fingerprint. Your browser derives a code from ordinary, non-identifying characteristics — its user-agent and platform strings, language setting, screen size and colour depth, the timezone offset, and how a standard piece of text renders — and hashes them (SHA-256) into a single token. The token sits in your browser and on your account. Server-only records also link recognised devices and accounts to a shared free-read allowance. Additional accounts do not receive a fresh allowance on a recognised device, and shared usage follows an account to other devices it uses. Existing article unlocks are retained. Republic Square keeps no device name or page-view history against the token. The signals RSQ processes are set out in the Privacy Policy.
Active subscribers are granted the contractual privilege of gifting read-access to specific protected investigative reports to a maximum of three (3) designated recipient email addresses. Recipients must sign in using that verified email address to view the designated article. Gift access is non-transferable, non-commercial, and may not be sold or sublicensed. Enterprise and Institutional licences are excluded from this privilege and do not include gift-article sharing.
All editorial synthesis, investigative journalism copy, proprietary taxonomic classifications, analytical frameworks, and software code are the intellectual property of Republic Square and protected under international copyright treaties. Republic Square operates on a some rights reserved basis rather than a blanket “all rights reserved” notice; contact the publisher at publishing@dinidu.org for the permitted-use and licensing terms.
You agree not to:
RSQ reserves the right to suspend or revoke access to any subscriber who engages in fraudulent billing, abusive scraping, or systematic violation of RSQ’s multi-device or copyright provisions, without liability.
To the maximum extent permitted by applicable law, Republic Square and its publisher, editors, journalists, and contributors shall not be liable for any indirect, incidental, consequential, special, or punitive damages arising from the use or inability to use the Service.
These Terms shall be governed by and construed in accordance with the laws of the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka, without giving effect to any principles of conflicts of law. Any legal action or proceeding arising under these Terms shall be instituted exclusively in the competent courts of Colombo, Sri Lanka.
For questions regarding these Terms, contact RSQ’s operational desk: