End User Licence Agreement

This End User Licence Agreement (the "EULA") is a legal agreement between you and Richard Ackroyd, trading as CrystalKarat ("we", "us", "our"). It covers your use of CrystalKarat software. You accept it when you buy a licence or start a trial, and by installing, activating or using the Software. If you do not accept it, do not install or use the Software.

Words defined in our Terms of Sale, such as Consumer, Business Customer, Licence Key and Activation Service, have the same meaning here.

1. The Software

"Software" means the CrystalKarat plugin you have licensed or are trialling, including Forge, in every format we supply it in, with its installers, updates, factory presets and documentation. "Computer" means one physical or virtual computer.

2. Your licence

2.1 Once you have paid for a licence, and for as long as you comply with this EULA, we grant you a non-exclusive, non-transferable licence to install and use the Software, for personal or commercial work, on up to two Computers at a time. A licence you buy outright has no end date. A licence that comes with a subscription lasts while the subscription is paid up: if you cancel, or a payment is not made, it ends when the period you have paid for ends.

2.2 You may keep the installer on more than one Computer, and keep backup copies of it, but the Software may be activated with your Licence Key on no more than two Computers at a time. You may move it to another Computer by deactivating it on one of them, in the Software or from your CrystalKarat account.

2.3 If you are a Business Customer, the Software may be used by your staff and contractors on your behalf, within the two-Computer limit, and you are responsible for their compliance with this EULA.

3. Free trials

3.1 A trial lets you use the complete Software, for evaluation, for a limited time: the number of days shown on the trial page when you start it, counted from that moment. When it ends the Software stops producing sound until you buy a licence or subscribe. Each product allows one trial per account and one per Computer, and you must not try to get around that limit.

3.2 A trial is free, so it is supplied "as is", without any promise as to its quality, fitness for purpose or availability, and we may end trials at any time. To the fullest extent the law allows, we have no liability to you for any loss or damage arising from a trial. This does not limit or exclude our liability for death or personal injury caused by our negligence, for fraud or fraudulent misrepresentation, or for anything else for which the law does not allow liability to be limited or excluded.

4. What you make is yours

You own the audio you create or process with the Software. There are no royalties, and you may use, release and sell it as you wish, including audio that uses the factory presets. The Software processes your audio on your Computer; we never receive it. Section 5.2 is the only exception: it limits what you may do to model or clone the Software itself.

5. What you may not do

5.1 Except as this EULA expressly allows, you must not, and must not let anyone else:

• copy, share, sell, rent, lease, lend, sublicense, publish or distribute the Software or a Licence Key, or make either available to anyone else;
• remove, disable, bypass or interfere with the Software's activation, licence checks or any other technical protection, or use a Licence Key on more Computers than this EULA allows;
• decompile, disassemble, reverse engineer, modify, translate or create derivative works of the Software, except where the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988 (sections 50B, 50BA and 296A) or other law expressly allows it regardless of this EULA;
• extract or reuse the Software's code, algorithms, presets, graphics, fonts or documentation, or use the Software to develop a product that competes with it;
• remove or alter any copyright, trade mark or other notice in the Software; or
• use the Software in a way that breaks the law or infringes anyone's rights.

5.2 You must not systematically capture the Software's processing, for example by recording test signals through it, in order to create a model, profile, capture, machine learning model or other copy or emulation of it.

6. Activation and technical protection

6.1 The Software is activated online once per Computer. Activation registers an identifier for the Computer, derived from its hardware, and the Computer's name with the Activation Service, so you can tell your Computers apart in your account. After that the Software checks a signed activation file stored on the Computer and works offline.

6.2 The Software renews the activation in the background when it is online, and must reach the Activation Service at least once every 30 days. If it cannot, it stops producing sound until it reconnects. Without a valid activation the Software stops producing sound 30 seconds after it starts and does not save its settings.

6.3 Changing a Computer's hardware or operating system may require you to activate it again. Deactivate the Software before you sell, give away or dispose of a Computer.

6.4 Once a day the Software asks our website whether a newer version exists. That request carries no Licence Key, email address or Computer identifier. Our Privacy Policy explains what activation and update checks send.

6.5 What happens if we stop running the Activation Service is set out in section 8.4 of the Terms of Sale.

7. Transferring your licence

Your licence is personal to you. You may not transfer it to anyone else without our written agreement, which we may give or refuse at our discretion. We may transfer this EULA as section 11.1 of the Terms of Sale allows.

8. Updates and support

8.1 We may publish updates, and your account offers the newest installer for your platform. An update may change, add or remove features. If you are a Consumer, we will not use an update to make the Software you bought stop matching its description, unless you agree.

8.2 Apart from that, and from our obligations to Consumers under the Terms of Sale, we are not obliged to provide updates, support, or new versions for future operating systems or hosts. We offer support by email at our discretion.

9. Safe listening and use

9.1 The Software can raise the level of audio sharply, especially with high drive, clip, output or mix settings, and when you change presets or settings. Loud audio can damage your hearing, your speakers and your headphones. Set a low monitoring level before you start, raise it gradually, and use a limiter on your monitoring or master output. Take particular care with headphones and with live sound.

9.2 Keep backups of your projects and recordings, and test the Software on your system before relying on it for live performance, broadcast or deadline-critical work.

9.3 You are responsible for having the rights you need in any material you process with the Software.

10. Ownership

10.1 The Software is licensed, not sold. We, or our licensors, own all intellectual property rights in it, including its code, sound, design, presets and documentation, and in the CrystalKarat and Forge names and logos. You have no rights in the Software except the ones this EULA expressly grants.

10.2 If you send us suggestions or feedback, we may use them freely, without any obligation to you.

11. Third-party components and trade marks

Third-party components in the Software are used under their own licences, which are included with the Software. Nothing in this EULA restricts your rights under those licences. VST is a registered trade mark of Steinberg Media Technologies GmbH. Other names are the trade marks of their owners and are used only to describe compatibility.

12. Ending this EULA

12.1 You may end this EULA at any time by uninstalling the Software and deleting every copy.

12.2 We may end your licence by notice in writing if you seriously or repeatedly break this EULA and, where the breach can be put right, you have not put it right within 14 days of our asking you to. We may end it straight away, without that 14-day period, if you break section 5. Your licence also ends if the payment for it is refunded or reversed.

12.3 When this EULA ends, your licence ends, and you must stop using the Software, deactivate it, and uninstall and delete every copy. If we end your licence because you broke this EULA, you are not entitled to a refund, except where the law requires one. Sections 4, 5, 10, 13 and 15 continue after this EULA ends.

13. Liability

For a purchased licence, our liability to you is as set out in the Terms of Sale: Part B if you are a Consumer, and Part C if you are a Business Customer. For a trial, it is as set out in section 3.2. If you are a Consumer, nothing in this EULA affects your statutory rights.

14. Sanctions and export

You must not use, export or make the Software available in breach of UK, or any other applicable, sanctions or export control laws.

15. General

15.1 If any part of this EULA is found to be unlawful or unenforceable, the rest stays in force. If we delay in enforcing it, we can still enforce it later. No one else has any right to enforce it, under the Contracts (Rights of Third Parties) Act 1999 or otherwise.

15.2 This EULA is governed by the law of England and Wales, and the courts to which disputes go are those set out in section 15 of the Terms of Sale.