Our role and independence
M5Ware is an independent directory that links to projects, software, and resources related to M5Stack. We are not affiliated with M5Stack or the creators of the projects listed here. Inclusion is for discovery only and does not imply endorsement, sponsorship, a partnership, or certification.
This policy covers the M5Ware catalog, project summaries, submitted links, and use of our website. References to “we” and “our” mean the M5Ware directory team, not M5Stack or any listed creator. The catalog helps people discover resources; it is not an official store, a software distributor, or an authorized support channel for the projects it lists.
M5Stack and other product names, trademarks, logos, and project names belong to their respective owners. Their appearance identifies the relevant device, source, or project. It does not imply that an owner operates, approves, sponsors, or has reviewed M5Ware.
Project ownership and responsibility
Projects belong to their respective creators and rights holders. Their creators and maintainers are responsible for the code, content, licensing, distribution, updates, and support they provide. M5Ware does not develop or maintain these projects and does not host their software downloads.
Support requests, purchases, refunds, warranties, subscriptions, donations, and agreements made with a creator or another website are matters between you and that provider. M5Ware cannot grant permission to use someone else’s work, promise that a maintainer will respond, or resolve a device warranty claim.
This distinction does not remove responsibilities that applicable law places on M5Ware for its own conduct. We accept reports about our listings and may correct, restrict, or remove them under this policy.
How to interpret the catalog
Listings can come from public repositories, firmware indexes, community resources, or visitor suggestions. Titles may be made easier to read and descriptions may be summarized or categorized. The original source is the place to check current instructions, authorship, release notes, and license terms.
Stars, activity dates, categories, device labels, and other catalog fields are discovery aids. They are not security ratings, legal assessments, or proof of quality. A catalog update date records when source information was observed; it does not mean every linked project was tested or reviewed on that date.
We have not comprehensively audited every existing listing for copyright permissions, malicious code, accuracy, or compatibility. Public sources can be incomplete, change after collection, or be compromised. Report inaccurate details, broken links, ownership changes, or suspicious destinations so they can be assessed.
Copyright, licenses, and permissions
A link is not a license. Public availability, a free download, an archived repository, or an absent license file does not by itself establish permission to copy, redistribute, modify, or sell the material. Check the permissions that apply to your intended use and seek clarification from the rights holder when necessary.
Different parts of a project may have different terms. A source code license may not cover bundled game data, artwork, music, documentation, fonts, firmware images, or trademarks. Preserve required notices and attribution, and review the relevant terms before redistributing a build or incorporating it into another product.
M5Ware does not determine disputed ownership or grant exceptions to another party’s license. Any catalog license label is informational and may be incomplete or outdated. Where a summary differs from the source terms, consult the source and the relevant rights holder.
Material we do not accept
We do not accept links to pirated copies of software, games, firmware, or other copyrighted material, including links that direct people to unauthorized downloads. A public repository or download link is not proof of permission to distribute its contents. We may decline or remove listings that violate this policy.
Do not submit or use M5Ware to promote any of the following:
- Unauthorized copies of commercial games, ROM collections, BIOS files, firmware, paid apps, books, media, or other protected works, including mirrors and links whose purpose is to lead people to those copies.
- Stolen license keys, leaked credentials, cracked software, or instructions and services whose purpose is to obtain paid material without permission or defeat access restrictions unlawfully.
- Malware, phishing, hidden credential collection, deceptive installers, or resources promoted for unauthorized access, theft, harassment, or disruption.
- Private personal information shared without permission, impersonation, misleading ownership claims, fraudulent offers, spam, or content that is unlawful to share.
- Redirects or replacement links intended to evade a removal, conceal a prohibited destination, or mislead reviewers about what a project contains.
Emulators, original homebrew games, development tools, and security research are not automatically prohibited categories. What matters is the linked material, its permissions, and how it is presented. Listing an emulator does not authorize downloading someone else’s game files. An “educational” label, “abandonware” label, or lack of commercial availability does not establish permission.
Rules for submitting a project
Only submit M5Stack resources that can be shared lawfully. Do not submit pirated copies, unauthorized game files, license keys, or links to unauthorized downloads. You may share your own work or another creator’s public project, but public availability alone does not establish permission to distribute it. New submissions remain pending review and are not published automatically.
- Use a direct, accurate link and a description that fairly explains the resource and its connection to M5Stack. Identify the creator where known. Do not imply that you represent a creator unless you are authorized to do so.
- Check the destination and available licensing information. Do not knowingly submit prohibited material or hide relevant concerns. Tell us when a submitted resource changes in a way that may violate this policy.
- Only include text and other submission material you are entitled to provide. Do not paste private information, passwords, or confidential material into a public project description.
- By submitting your description and listing details, you permit M5Ware to store, review, format, edit for clarity, and display those details for operating the catalog. This permission does not transfer ownership of the linked project or authorize us to distribute its software.
The required acknowledgement records your statement, the applicable policy version, and the time the server receives it. It is not a finding that you own every right in a project. Publication is not guaranteed, and a submission may be declined, combined with an existing listing, corrected, or removed.
Safe and lawful use
Before using a project, review its source, license, permissions, and device compatibility. A listing does not verify that a project is safe, lawful, or authorized. Questions about a project should be directed to its creator or maintainer.
Firmware flashing, experimental builds, wiring changes, radio tools, and scripts may erase data, damage equipment, expose credentials, or behave differently from their descriptions. Follow the device documentation, keep suitable backups, and understand recovery steps before making changes. Do not treat a catalog listing as a recommendation for a critical or safety sensitive system.
Use tools only on devices, accounts, networks, and data you own or are authorized to access. You are responsible for checking applicable rules concerning radio transmissions, privacy, security testing, and other regulated activity. The catalog does not grant authorization to test another person’s systems.
External websites and transactions
Following a project link takes you to a service operated by someone else. Its own terms, privacy practices, cookies, security, and payment conditions may apply. We do not control those destinations, their subsequent redirects, or changes to their content.
Check the destination before signing in, sending money, connecting a device, or running a download. A listing is not a guarantee of authenticity or a promise that a site will remain available. Please report a project link that becomes misleading or unsafe.
Report a concern or request removal
Contact the M5Ware team using the contact form below for copyright concerns, suspected piracy, malware, privacy issues, incorrect attribution, or requests concerning a listing. You do not need to be the copyright owner to flag a concern. Tell us whether you are reporting an observation, representing a rights holder, or requesting a correction as a creator.
Choose the relevant topic in the form and include enough information to locate and assess the issue:
- The exact M5Ware listing URL and the external URL concerned. For multiple listings, identify each one.
- A clear explanation of the concern and the specific material or activity involved.
- For a copyright claim, identify the protected work, the rights holder, your authority to act, and any useful original source or permission evidence.
- Your name or organization and an email address where we can request clarification.
- For a formal copyright notice where required by applicable law, include the required signature and statements about your good faith belief, accuracy, and authority. Identify the legal process you are invoking.
Provide URLs and a concise explanation rather than sending unauthorized copies, executable attachments, passwords, government identity documents, or unnecessary private information. An incomplete report can still flag a concern, but we may need more information to evaluate or act on it. This is a general reporting contact, not a representation that a statutory copyright agent has been registered.
Review, removal, and repeat abuse
We assess reports using the information available and may request clarification, correct a listing, disable a link, or remove an entry. A credible concern may lead to temporary removal while it is assessed. Actions required by applicable law take priority over our discretionary review process.
Removal from M5Ware affects our directory only. We cannot delete material from a creator’s repository or another hosting service. You may also need to contact the source host through its own reporting process.
We may reject further submissions associated with repeated infringement, deliberate deception, or attempts to restore prohibited links. The current submission form does not create visitor accounts; this policy does not imply that an account suspension system exists.
A removal is not a court ruling or a final determination of ownership. We do not guarantee a fixed response time, continued publication, or a particular outcome. Do not use the reporting process to harass a creator, suppress lawful competition, or make knowingly false claims.
Corrections and reconsideration
If you believe a listing was removed or described incorrectly, contact us with the listing URL, the reason you believe there was an error, and relevant licensing or ownership evidence. Refer to the original report or correspondence when available. Do not evade a decision by submitting the same material through a different address.
We may ask for more evidence or maintain a restriction while a dispute remains unresolved. A request for editorial reconsideration is not automatically a formal statutory counter notice and does not guarantee restoration. Where a legal notice or counter notice process applies, its requirements and deadlines must be addressed separately.
YouTube videos and privacy
The video collection uses YouTube API Services to index public titles, creator names, dates, and video metadata. Videos remain hosted by YouTube and belong to their creators. M5Ware does not download or redistribute video files. Inclusion and device labels are discovery aids, not endorsements or verified compatibility.
YouTube thumbnails load as you browse. The embedded YouTube player loads only when you choose Play video. These requests may share your IP address and browser information with Google or YouTube, whose own privacy practices apply. This is separate from optional M5Ware analytics. You can also follow Watch on YouTube to open the original video.
By using the video features, you are bound by the YouTube Terms of Service at https://www.youtube.com/t/terms. Google handles information under its privacy policy at https://policies.google.com/privacy. Contact us to report an incorrect association, request removal, or raise a privacy concern about indexed video metadata.
We refresh saved video metadata and exclude records that are more than 30 days old from public results. Indexing removes expired metadata and unavailable videos. A failed refresh may temporarily reduce the collection until a later scan succeeds.
Information, cookies, and contact privacy
The catalog stores public project information and the details supplied in the submission form. Approved listing details may be displayed publicly. Pending submissions and policy acknowledgement records are stored for review. Do not include information in a description that you do not want published.
Project pages can display a cached public repository README attributed to its creators. We retrieve this text from GitHub through our server and store it separately from contact correspondence. The saved date is shown, and cached text can differ from the latest source. Original credits and license notices remain part of the project content. Report concerns or removal requests through the contact form.
README images, including badges and animations, load from external hosts automatically as you browse the project page. Those hosts may receive your IP address and browser information. We request that the browser omit the referring page address. You can hide images on the page, but this does not undo requests already made. Image loading is separate from optional analytics. Opening original README links or other external links is also subject to the destination site’s practices.
The contact form stores your name, reply address, topic, supplied URLs, message, reference, receipt time, and delivery status in our database. These contact records are not published in the catalog. We use them to review and respond to requests and limit spam. A temporary technical challenge helps reduce automated submissions without a third party CAPTCHA.
When email notifications are connected, contact details are also sent through our configured mail provider to the team inbox in Google Workspace. The local preview states when email delivery is not connected. Information relevant to a concern may need to be shared with a creator, source provider, adviser, or authority to assess the issue or comply with law. We cannot promise absolute confidentiality. Request limited disclosure if a report contains sensitive information.
The website uses a preference cookie to remember your cookie choice for 180 days. When configured, optional Umami analytics runs on our infrastructure only after you allow it and is disabled when your browser sends Do Not Track. Our integration excludes search text, submission contents, and advertising profiles. You can withdraw analytics permission through Cookie settings; this stops future tracking but does not undo processing that already occurred.
The site currently requests typefaces from Google Fonts. Hosting, font delivery, and email providers receive the technical information needed to deliver their services, which can include an IP address and browser information. Rejecting optional analytics does not stop the requests needed to load the website or deliver email.
Contact us about information accuracy, access, deletion, or other applicable privacy rights. Retention and disclosure may depend on the purpose of the record, unresolved reports, backups, security needs, and legal obligations. We do not promise immediate deletion of every backup copy.
Availability, warranties, and legal rights
To the extent permitted by applicable law, the directory and its informational summaries are provided as available, without promises that they are complete, uninterrupted, error free, suitable for a particular purpose, or free of harmful links. No statement here overrides a warranty or obligation that the law does not allow us to exclude.
To the extent permitted by applicable law, M5Ware excludes liability for indirect or consequential losses arising from use of the directory, including loss of data, profits, or business opportunities. This is not a blanket exclusion of all liability. It does not exclude liability for fraud, deliberate misconduct, or anything else that cannot lawfully be excluded, and it does not waive your mandatory consumer or privacy rights.
The directory does not provide legal, security, or professional advice. This policy does not establish that M5Ware qualifies for a legal safe harbor or that a particular linked resource is lawful. Applicable obligations depend on the facts and the relevant law.
Policy changes and questions
We may update this policy as the catalog, its practices, or applicable requirements change. The date at the top identifies the current revision. New submission acknowledgements record the version presented at submission; an update does not rewrite earlier acknowledgement records or create consent that was never given.
For questions about this policy, reporting an issue, or correcting a catalog entry, use the M5Ware contact in the reporting section. For help installing or using a project, contact its creator or maintainer through the original source.