Licence terms.

This agreement

These Licence terms are an agreement between you and Paperwolf Studio (Italy) for the Paperwolf Studio plugins and the Studio app (the software). You accept them when you tick the box before checkout, or when you install or use the software, including the free trial and free plugins. If you buy or use the software for a business, you accept them for that business and confirm that you may do so. The software is licensed, not sold: we and our licensors keep every right in it that these terms don’t expressly give you.

Some rules differ for consumers (people buying for purposes outside their trade, business, craft or profession) and business customers (everyone else, including freelancers and studios). Where a rule applies to only one of them, it says so.

If you are a consumer

Nothing in these terms limits the rights that consumer law gives you and that a contract can’t exclude, such as the legal guarantee of conformity and the mandatory rules of the country where you live. If a clause would limit those rights, it applies only as far as the law allows.

Free trial

Without a licence, every paid plugin runs as a free trial: every feature, a Paperwolf watermark on the image, no time limit. Anything rendered in trial mode, or while no valid licence file is present, carries the watermark.

The trial is how you check, before you buy, that the plugins work on your Mac, with your versions of macOS and DaVinci Resolve and with your footage. Please use it: except where the law provides otherwise, purchases are final (see the Terms & Conditions). We may change how the trial works at any time.

System requirements and compatibility

The software runs only on macOS, as OpenFX plugins for DaVinci Resolve. Paid plugins need DaVinci Resolve 20 or later; free plugins need DaVinci Resolve Studio. Paid plugins need the Studio app and an internet connection for activation and renewal (see Activation). Free plugins don’t need the Studio app or a connection to work: you can install them with the Studio app or with their standalone installer. The current requirements are on the system requirements page and on each plugin’s page; those that apply to your purchase are the ones published when you buy.

We develop and test the plugins on Macs with Apple Silicon M4-series chips. They may run on other Macs, but we don’t guarantee that they work, or perform, on other Apple Silicon chips, on Intel Macs or on other configurations as they do on the tested ones. Performance, including real-time playback, depends on your hardware, the timeline resolution and the settings. Try the free trial on your own system before you buy.

We don’t guarantee compatibility with future versions of DaVinci Resolve or macOS, with future hardware, or with other plugins and software. Apple and Blackmagic Design can change their products in ways that stop a plugin from working; we try to adapt with updates, but we can’t promise whether or when that is possible. If you are a consumer, this doesn’t affect your legal guarantee of conformity.

Your licence

When you buy, and as long as you respect these terms, we give you a non-exclusive, non-transferable, non-sublicensable licence to install and use the software you bought, for personal and commercial work, on up to 2 Macs at a time that you own or control. A licence bought by a business is for that business’s own use, on 2 Macs at a time: it is not a licence per user, and it can’t be shared with other companies or with clients. To move a licence, deactivate a Mac in the Studio app, then activate the new one, within the limits in Activation.

• Perpetual licence (one plugin, a pack or the Full Suite): no end date and no recurring fee for the plugins it covers, with free updates to those plugins as described in Updates. Like every licence, it needs the online activation described below.
• Subscription (Full Suite, yearly or monthly): the licence is valid only while the subscription is active and paid. It covers the plugins we include in the subscription at any given time, with their updates. When the subscription ends, or if a renewal payment fails, the licence stops and the watermark comes back.

What each product includes is described in the Terms & Conditions.

Free plugins

Some plugins are free: their page on this site says so and shows no price. A free plugin needs no purchase, no licence key and no activation, and it never adds a watermark. You may install and use it, for personal and commercial work, on any number of Macs that you own or control.

The rest of these terms applies to free plugins as it does to the rest of the software, including Your work is yours, What you may not do (you may not sell, rent or redistribute a free plugin or its installer), Changes to the software and products and Warranty and liability. Free trial, Your licence and Activation and online renewal apply only to paid plugins.

Activation and online renewal

Paid plugins need our online activation service (free plugins don’t, see Free plugins). This is how it works:

• Activation. The Studio app exchanges your licence key for a licence file tied to that Mac. Activating needs an internet connection.
• Renewal every 30 days. A licence file is valid for up to 30 days. The Studio app renews it automatically in the background when the Mac is online, from when 14 days or fewer are left. For a subscription, the file never runs more than a few days beyond the period you’ve paid for.
• Working offline. The plugins check the licence file offline, so you can work without a connection while it is valid. If a Mac stays offline until its licence file expires, the plugins go back to the trial and show the watermark until the Mac is online again and the Studio app renews the licence. Connect at least once every 30 days, and check your renders before you deliver them.
• 2 Macs at a time. A licence can be active on at most 2 Macs at the same time.
• Moving a licence. You can deactivate a Mac in the Studio app to free its place, at most 2 times in any 30 days. Further technical limits stop a licence from being cycled across more Macs than it allows. When you reach a limit, the app tells you from which date you can try again.

We may change these technical parameters, for example to fix a security problem or to stop abuse, as described in Changes. What the app sends to activate is described in the Privacy policy.

Availability. We run the activation service and intend to keep it running, but we don’t guarantee that it, or the other online services involved (Lemon Squeezy, hosting, downloads), will always be available, without interruption or forever. While the service is unavailable, licences can’t be activated or renewed. Except where the law provides otherwise, including the legal guarantee of conformity for consumers, we are not liable for interruptions or for the end of the service.

Updates

A perpetual licence includes, free, the updates we release for the specific plugins you bought (for the Full Suite, the plugins it covers). A subscription includes the updates of the plugins it covers while it is active.

• We decide whether, when and what to release: fixes, compatibility work, improvements, new looks or controls. We don’t promise any particular update, feature or date, and we may stop developing a plugin.
• An update is a new version of a plugin you have, not a new product. New plugins and other new products are not included in a perpetual licence, pack or bundle you already own, even if they resemble a plugin you have, except where the product description at purchase says otherwise (the Full Suite’s first 12 months, see the Terms & Conditions).
• An update may need the latest Studio app or a recent version of macOS or DaVinci Resolve. We support the latest version of each plugin, and we may stop offering older versions for download.

If you are a consumer, we also provide the updates the law requires to keep the software in conformity, for as long as the law requires. As the law allows, we are not responsible for a problem that an update would have fixed if you didn’t install that update after we made it available and told you about it.

Changes to the software and products

The software and the range evolve. At any time we may change, rename, add or remove features, controls, looks and presets; change, rename, add or retire products, packs, bundles and plans; stop selling a product; and change the Studio app and the activation service.

If you are a consumer, we change software you have paid for only for a valid reason: compatibility with new versions of macOS, DaVinci Resolve or hardware; security; legal requirements; changes by our providers; fixing errors; improving quality or performance; or removing features that are little used, unreliable or too costly to maintain. The change costs you nothing extra, and we tell you about it clearly, for example in the changelog or in the Studio app. If a change affects your access to or use of the software negatively, in a way that is more than minor, we tell you by email reasonably in advance, and you may end the contract free of charge within 30 days of the notice or of the change, whichever is later; you then get back the part of the price the law provides (for a subscription, the unused part of the period you’ve paid for). This right doesn’t apply if we let you keep, at no extra cost, a version without the change that still works as described.

If we stop selling a product, a perpetual licence you already have for it keeps working under these terms, including Activation; we may stop releasing updates for it, subject to the updates the law requires for consumers.

If you are a business customer, we may make any of these changes without notice, and they give you no right to compensation or to end the contract.

Your work is yours

Everything you make with the plugins belongs to you: no royalties, no credit required. This gives you no rights in the software itself, in its looks and presets as such, or in our names and logos, and the limits below still apply.

What you may not do

Unless the law expressly allows it, you may not, and may not let anyone else:

• share, sell, rent, lend, sublicense or publish your licence key or licence files, or use one licence on more Macs, or for more people or companies, than it allows;
• remove, hide or get around the watermark, the activation, the licence check or the limits in these terms, tamper with licence files, or use cracks, key generators or substitute activation servers;
• copy or redistribute the software or its installers, beyond the backup copies you need (installing free plugins on any number of Macs that you own or control is allowed, see Free plugins);
• reverse engineer, decompile, disassemble or modify the software, except where the law expressly allows it (for example, to make it work with other programs);
• extract, sample, measure or recreate the looks, presets, effects, textures or other content of the software as LUTs, presets, DCTLs, PowerGrades, Fusion macros or templates, plugins, datasets or any other product, in order to sell, share or distribute them, paid or free;
• use the software, or images and data made with it, to train, fine-tune or build artificial intelligence or machine learning models, or other software, that imitate or reproduce the plugins or their effects;
• offer the software or its effects to third parties as a hosted, cloud, remote-rendering or other online service, or let third parties use it over a network (using it on your own Macs to make work for your clients is fine);
• use our names, logos or product names to market your own products, or remove copyright and licence notices;
• use the software in breach of the law, including export controls and sanctions.

Suspension and termination

We may suspend or deactivate a licence, and end these terms for it, if:

• you seriously break these terms, for example by sharing your key, getting around the activation or redistributing the software;
• the order is refunded in full or charged back, or the payment is reversed or fraudulent;
• the key was obtained from someone not authorised to sell it, or was generated, leaked or published;
• a subscription ends or its renewal payment fails.

If we suspect abuse, for example from unusual activation patterns, we may suspend the licence while we check, and restore it if there was no breach. Where it is reasonable, we tell you why and give you a chance to put things right first. A licence ended because of your breach, a chargeback or fraud is not refunded, except where the law provides otherwise. When a licence ends, you must stop using the software it covered; the clauses that by their nature should last, such as the limits, liability and applicable law, continue to apply. You can stop using the software at any time.

Other software

DaVinci Resolve is made by Blackmagic Design and macOS by Apple; each has its own licence, and neither is a party to these terms. Third-party components included in the software remain under their own licences.

Warranty and liability

Consumers. The legal guarantee of conformity applies as described in the Terms & Conditions. Beyond it, we don’t promise that the software will be free of errors or work without interruption: keep backups of your projects and check your renders before you deliver them. We are liable as the law provides for damage caused by our intent or gross negligence and for death or personal injury; otherwise, we are not liable for losses that could not be foreseen when the contract was made, or that you could reasonably have avoided, for example with backups. Nothing here limits your rights as a consumer.

Business customers. To the fullest extent the law allows: the software is provided “as is” and “as available”, without warranties of any kind, express or implied, including fitness for a particular purpose, uninterrupted operation and absence of errors; we are not liable for indirect or consequential losses, loss of profit, revenue, clients or opportunities, lost or damaged data or projects, missed deadlines, re-rendering or re-delivery costs, or claims by your clients; and our total liability for all claims relating to the software and these terms is limited to the amount you paid for the product concerned in the 12 months before the event giving rise to the claim (for a perpetual licence bought earlier, the price you paid for it). These limits don’t apply to damage caused by our intent or gross negligence, to death or personal injury, or where the law doesn’t allow liability to be limited. You will hold us harmless from claims by third parties, and the related reasonable costs, arising from your breach of these terms.

Changes to these terms

We may update these terms for a valid reason: changes in the law, in our products, plans or services, in security needs or in how Lemon Squeezy works. The date of the current version is at the top of this page. The version you accepted applies to your purchase, except that:

• Subscriptions: a new version applies from your first renewal at least 30 days after we tell you about it by email; if you don’t accept it, cancel before that renewal.
• Business customers: a new version applies 30 days after we publish it on this site; if you keep using the software after that, you accept it.
• New purchases are governed by the version in force when you buy.

Applicable law and courts

Italian law applies to these terms. If you are a consumer, you keep the protection of the mandatory rules of the country where you live, and you can bring a claim before the courts where you live; if you live in Italy, the court of your place of residence or domicile has jurisdiction. If you are a business customer, the courts of the place where Paperwolf Studio has its registered office in Italy have exclusive jurisdiction, and the UN Convention on Contracts for the International Sale of Goods doesn’t apply.

General

• Whole agreement. For business customers, these terms, the Terms & Conditions and the product description at purchase are the whole agreement about the software and replace anything said before. For consumers, the information given before the purchase is also part of the contract, as the law provides.
• Severability. If a clause is invalid or can’t be enforced, the rest stays in force, and that clause applies as far as the law allows.
• No waiver. If we don’t enforce a right straight away, we don’t give it up.
• Transfer. You may not transfer these terms or your licence without our written consent. We may transfer them, for example to a company that takes over the Paperwolf Studio business, provided your rights as a consumer are not reduced.
• Events beyond our control. We are not liable for delays or failures caused by events beyond our reasonable control, such as outages of the internet, of Lemon Squeezy or of our hosting providers, attacks, natural events, or changes made by Apple or Blackmagic Design. This doesn’t limit your rights as a consumer.
• Language. These terms are published in English and Italian. If the two differ, the Italian version prevails, except that for consumers any doubt is resolved in their favour.