Terms of Service & License Agreement

Effective and last updated: July 20, 2026

These Terms of Service and License Agreement (the Terms) are between you and Joseph Ou, operating as Solvenar, in California, USA (Solvenar, we, us, or our). They govern the public version of the Solvenar application, its website, and related license delivery and recovery services (together, the Product). Contact: me@josephou.com.

By downloading, installing, or using the Product, you agree to these Terms. If you buy a paid license, you also agree to them at checkout. If you use the Product for an organization, you represent that you can bind that organization. If you cannot legally agree to a contract, a parent or guardian must agree for you. If you do not agree, do not use the Product.

1. The Product

The public Solvenar application is local-first software that indexes and searches your photo and video library on your device. Captioning, search embeddings, face detection, and face grouping run locally. The public app does not require an account or subscription and does not send library content to Solvenar. Paid tiers are one-time licenses that lift the free tier's indexing limits. The Privacy Policy explains the app's limited network activity and the separate data used by our website, checkout, support, and license recovery.

2. Your content

As between you and Solvenar, you retain any rights you have in your media and in the captions, indexes, face data, labels, and other data created locally from it. We do not acquire ownership of that content. The public app does not transmit your library content to us. You are responsible for having the rights and permissions needed to process the media you choose.

3. License grant

Subject to these Terms, we grant you a limited, non-exclusive license to download, install, and use the public Solvenar application:

• Free tier. One person may use the free features and indexing allowance shown in the Product.
• Paid tier. A paid license is for one person, is perpetual unless terminated under these Terms, and may be activated on up to three devices that person owns or controls. Replacing a device does not create an additional user seat.
• Professional use. Either tier may be used for your own professional work, including processing client media you are authorized to process. A business must obtain one paid license for each person who uses paid features.

The license does not permit you to share a key with another person, split a multi-device allowance among users, resell access, sublicense the Product, or offer the Product's functionality to third parties as a hosted or managed service. You may not circumvent tier limits or license checks, or modify, reverse engineer, or decompile the Product, except to the extent applicable law expressly permits. Transfer restrictions apply only to the extent permitted by law; contact us if mandatory law gives you a right to transfer a license.

Solvenar and its licensors retain all rights in the Product not expressly granted here. Third-party components remain governed by their own licenses.

4. Purchases and Paddle

Our order process is conducted by our authorized online reseller, Paddle. Paddle is the merchant of record for orders, provides payment-related customer service, and handles returns. You purchase the Product from Paddle, while Solvenar licenses and supports the Product under these Terms. Paddle's Buyer Terms, checkout disclosures, and applicable taxes also apply to the transaction.

Prices, tiers, and any time-limited discounts are displayed before checkout. They are not part of these Terms and may change for future purchases.

5. Refunds and chargebacks

In addition to any mandatory rights, you may request a full refund within fourteen (14) days after purchase by contacting Paddle at paddle.net. We authorize Paddle to honor that voluntary refund promise. Nothing in these Terms limits any longer refund, withdrawal, repair, replacement, or other remedy required by applicable law. See our Refund Policy for details.

When Paddle approves a refund, or confirms a final chargeback that has not been reversed, the paid license terminates. Because keys are verified offline, a key may remain technically capable of activating the software, but continued use of paid features after termination is unauthorized. Refunded and finally charged-back keys cannot be recovered, reissued, or used to obtain an upgrade. If a chargeback is reversed, contact us so we can restore the associated license record.

6. Updates, compatibility, and old versions

Your license includes updates released within the update window shown in your license record or purchase confirmation. An early-adopter lifetime-updates license includes every Solvenar update we publish for as long as Solvenar continues publishing updates for this Product. “Lifetime” refers to the commercial life of this Product, not the purchaser's lifetime, and does not promise that we will publish updates for any minimum period or build any particular feature.

Subject to Section 12, versions already installed may be used indefinitely. We do not guarantee compatibility with future operating systems, hardware, third-party applications, or media formats. We intend to keep released builds available for re-download while reasonably practicable, but you should retain your installer and license key; perpetual use is not a promise of perpetual download hosting, maintenance, support, or security updates.

7. License recovery

We store limited purchase and license information so you can recover a lost key, as described in the Privacy Policy. Recovery is a convenience rather than a guarantee. Keep a copy of your key and purchase email. Deleting the associated server-side record at your request permanently disables recovery, although an unrevoked key you retained will continue to verify offline.

8. Network use and third-party components

The public app's external network activity is limited to:

1. downloading local AI or face models when a feature first needs them; and
2. checking for and downloading application updates.

Those hosts receive ordinary connection metadata, such as your IP address and the requested file. They do not receive your library content from Solvenar. Activation and library processing work offline. Website visits, purchases, waitlist requests, support messages, and license recovery are separate from the app and are described in the Privacy Policy.

Open-source software, model, and data licenses are listed in the public Third-Party Notices. Components you install yourself, such as a system ffmpeg or additional models, are provided and licensed directly by their respective providers.

9. Acceptable use

You may not use the Product to violate law or another person's rights, process media you are not authorized to process, distribute malware, evade access controls, or interfere with the Product or its license services. Face grouping runs locally, is not an identity-verification or biometric-authentication system, and must not be used as one. You are responsible for any notice, consent, or other obligation that applies to your use of face features.

10. AI output and backups

Search results, captions, translations, suggested groupings, and face matches may be incomplete, inaccurate, or offensive. Do not rely on them for legal, safety-critical, identity, eligibility, employment, credit, insurance, or other high-impact decisions. Solvenar is designed not to modify your original media, but you remain responsible for maintaining appropriate backups.

11. Disclaimers and mandatory rights

The Product is provided “as is” and “as available.” To the extent permitted by law, Solvenar disclaims implied warranties of merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose, title, non-infringement, and uninterrupted or error-free operation. System requirements and material limitations disclosed before purchase form part of the Product description.

Some jurisdictions give consumers warranties and remedies that cannot be excluded. Nothing in these Terms excludes, restricts, or modifies any warranty, refund right, remedy, or other consumer right that cannot lawfully be excluded, restricted, or modified.

12. Limitation of liability

To the maximum extent permitted by law, Solvenar will not be liable for lost profits, lost revenue, business interruption, loss or corruption of data, or indirect, incidental, special, exemplary, or consequential damages arising from the Product, even if we were advised that such damages were possible.

To the maximum extent permitted by law, Solvenar's total liability arising out of the Product or these Terms will not exceed the greater of (a) the amount paid for the license giving rise to the claim or (b) US$100. These limitations apply across all legal theories and claims in the aggregate.

These limitations do not apply to fraud or willful misconduct, death or personal injury caused by negligence where liability cannot be limited, or any other liability or consumer remedy that applicable law does not permit us to exclude or limit.

13. Termination

You may terminate these Terms by uninstalling and ceasing use of the Product. We may terminate a license for a material breach of these Terms. Where the breach can be cured, we will ordinarily give you a reasonable opportunity to cure it before termination. Section 5 separately governs refunds and final chargebacks.

When a license terminates, you must stop using the affected paid features and delete copies you are no longer authorized to use. Termination does not remove your media or local index. Sections that by their nature should survive—such as ownership, disclaimers, liability limits, and general terms—will survive.

14. Changes to these Terms

The version accepted at purchase governs that paid license. We may revise these Terms for future downloads and purchases. We may apply a change to existing use only when reasonably necessary to comply with law, address security or abuse, or clarify the Terms without materially reducing your rights. We will provide reasonable advance notice of a material change when practicable. A change does not reduce mandatory consumer rights or the perpetual scope of a paid license already purchased.

15. Governing law and disputes

California law governs these Terms, without regard to conflict-of-law rules. For a claim not eligible for small-claims court, and unless mandatory consumer law provides otherwise, you and Solvenar consent to the state and federal courts serving the California county where Solvenar's principal place of business is located. These Terms do not deprive a consumer of the protection of mandatory law or courts available in the consumer's home jurisdiction.

Before filing a claim, please email me@josephou.com with a short description of the problem so we can try to resolve it informally. This request does not shorten any legal deadline or prevent either party from seeking urgent relief.

16. General terms

These Terms, the Privacy Policy, the applicable purchase confirmation, and any third-party terms identified at checkout form the agreement concerning the Product. If one provision is unenforceable, it will be enforced to the greatest extent permitted and the remaining provisions will continue. A failure to enforce a provision is not a waiver. You may not assign these Terms except with our consent or where applicable law gives you a transfer right. We may assign them as part of a merger, reorganization, or sale of the Product, provided that the assignment does not reduce an existing paid license's scope.

Questions, complaints, and legal notices: me@josephou.com.