diff --git a/README.md b/README.md
index 76f8a7da..58db87d4 100644
--- a/README.md
+++ b/README.md
@@ -11,10 +11,22 @@ A self-hosted music server that thinks for you. Smart shuffle, contextual likes,
 - **OpenSubsonic-compatible.** Existing Subsonic clients (DSub, Symfonium, play:Sub, etc.) connect with no special configuration.
 - **Server-side smart shuffle.** Track-similarity vectors, dual-like model (general + contextual), and session memory keep mixes coherent across devices.
 - **ListenBrainz radio.** Session-aware "more like this" pulls from ListenBrainz similarity data, not a static genre tag.
-- **Lidarr integration.** Triggered scans, request-driven album imports, and a quarantine flow when something doesn't fit.
+- **Lidarr integration.** Triggered scans, request-driven album imports, and a quarantine flow when something doesn't fit — against a Lidarr instance *you* run and configure. Optional, and off until you supply a URL and API key.
 - **Built-in web SPA.** Full-feature library, search, queue, playlists, and admin — no separate frontend container to deploy.
 - **Native Android client, shipped with the server.** The signed APK is bundled into every image and attached to each [release](https://git.fabledsword.com/bvandeusen/minstrel/releases) — sideload it once, then the app self-updates straight from your own server (no app store, no separate download to track).
 
+## Scope and responsible use
+
+**Minstrel serves music you already have.** It is a library server: it indexes files on disk you point it at, and streams them to your own clients. It does not source, search for, or acquire content, and it has no opinion about where your files came from.
+
+Concretely, Minstrel ships **no** indexers, **no** trackers, **no** torrent / Usenet / NZB client, and **no** DRM circumvention of any kind. There is nothing to point at a content source because Minstrel has no such subsystem.
+
+The **Lidarr integration is optional and inert until you configure it.** You supply the URL and API key of a Lidarr instance you are already running; Minstrel then calls that instance's API to trigger scans, submit album requests, and reconcile imports. Minstrel neither bundles nor installs Lidarr, and configures no indexers on your behalf — Lidarr ships with none either, and any it uses are ones you added yourself.
+
+**What you put in your library, and what sources you configure in your own Lidarr, are your responsibility.** Copyright law applies to your collection the same way it applies to any other software that plays a file. Please respect it, and respect the terms of any service you connect.
+
+Minstrel is not affiliated with or endorsed by Lidarr, ListenBrainz, MusicBrainz, or Subsonic.
+
 ## Quickstart
 
 ```yaml