Terms of Service

Last updated: October 30, 2026

1. Acceptance of Terms

By accessing or using PinePaper Cloud Studio ("Service"), you agree to be bound by these Terms of Service. If you disagree with any part of these terms, you may not access the Service.

2. Description of Service & Local-First Architecture

PinePaper operates under a dual architecture separating local-first browser editing from hosted cloud services:

• PinePaper Studio (https://pinepaper.studio) — Local-First Editor: A browser-based visual creation and motion design tool. Canvas design, vector path operations, animations, and timeline keyframes execute locally on your client device. Design projects are stored in your browser's local storage (such as IndexedDB and localStorage) and are not transmitted to or stored on our servers simply by using the Studio editor.
• PinePaper Cloud (https://cloud.pinepaper.studio) — Cloud & MCP Platform: Hosted cloud infrastructure providing:
  • MCP API Access: Standard Model Context Protocol (MCP) HTTP interface for procedural vector composition, multi-agent diagramming, and automated asset generation.
  • Cloud Rendering Engine: Headless containerized rendering pipelines for high-resolution video exports (MP4/WebM/GIF) and interactive web embed widgets.
  • Multi-Model AI Inference: Routing across commercial AI models (for example Claude, Gemini, GPT and Grok), on platform credits or with your own key. Which providers receive what is listed in the Privacy Policy.
  • BYOK (Bring Your Own Key): Your provider key is stored encrypted (AES-256-GCM); our servers use it to call that provider on your behalf, and the provider bills you directly, plus a flat platform fee.

3. Account Registration

You may register using Google OAuth. By registering, you:

• Confirm you are at least 16 years old (or the age of majority in your jurisdiction)
• Provide accurate registration information
• Accept responsibility for all activity under your account
• Agree not to share your API keys with unauthorized parties

4. Pricing and Payments

4.1 Pay-As-You-Go Credits

• Credits are purchased via Stripe
• Minimum purchase: $10 (you receive approximately $9.41 after Stripe fees)
• New users receive a $1 bonus on their first credit purchase
• Credits never expire

4.2 Usage Costs

• MCP Request: $0.001 (applies to all requests)
• Cloud Renders: credits = ceil(seconds × fps/30 × resolution factor × format factor), at $0.015 per credit; single-frame stills and widget builds are 1 credit. Factors and a calculator are published at /render-pricing
• Voice, sound effect and embed-event fees: as listed on /pricing
• LLM Inference (PinePaper Credits): Pay-as-you-go with transparent per-request pricing (see /pricing)
• LLM Inference (BYOK): No LLM markup - you pay providers directly + $0.002/request platform fee

4.3 Refunds

Refunds are available within 7 days of purchase, subject to the following:

• Refund amount: The refund equals your remaining unused paid credit balance. For example, if you purchased $10 (received $9.41 in credits) and used $2.00, your refund would be $7.41. Stripe processing fees (2.9% + $0.30) are non-recoverable — Stripe does not return processing fees on refunds.
• Promotional credits: Signup bonuses and promotional credits ($1 new user bonus, referral credits, etc.) are non-refundable and excluded from refund calculations.
• After 7 days: All credit purchases are final. Credits never expire and remain available for use indefinitely.

5. Intellectual Property

5.1 Your Content

You retain full ownership of all designs, graphics, and exports you create using the Service. PinePaper claims no intellectual property rights over your content.

5.2 License to PinePaper

You grant PinePaper a limited license to process your content solely for the purpose of providing the Service.

6. Acceptable Use Policy

You agree to use the Service in compliance with all applicable laws and regulations. You must not use the Service, or permit others to use the Service, to generate, store, distribute, or facilitate any of the following:

6.1 Prohibited Content

• Child Exploitation: Child sexual abuse material (CSAM), child sexual exploitation and abuse (CSAE), or any content depicting or encouraging harm to minors. We maintain a zero-tolerance policy: accounts found violating this provision are terminated immediately and reported to relevant authorities (including the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children and Canadian law enforcement).
• Violence & Terrorism: Content promoting, facilitating, or encouraging suicide, self-harm, violent extremism, terrorism, or unlawful acts of violence.
• Hate Speech & Harassment: Content that harasses, defames, disparages, stalks, or incites hatred against any individual or protected group based on race, ethnicity, religion, disability, age, nationality, sexual orientation, or gender identity.
• Malware & Malicious Code: Executables, scripts, viruses, worms, trojans, ransomware, or any payloads intended to damage, infiltrate, or compromise software, hardware, or networks.
• Deception & Impersonation: Phishing, fraudulent schemes, or deceptive impersonation of individuals, companies, or government bodies.

6.2 Prohibited System Activities

• Unauthorized Testing & Exploitation: Probing, scanning, or testing the vulnerability of our systems, networks, or containers without prior written authorization from PinePaper.
• Circumvention: Attempting to bypass, disable, or circumvent account authentication, rate limits, credit accounting ledgers, or access controls.
• Denial of Service: Launching denial-of-service (DoS/DDoS) attacks, flood requests, or automated operations that degrade service availability for other customers.
• Unauthorized Scraping & Model Extraction: Scraping, harvesting, or bulk-extracting platform outputs or API responses to train, evaluate, or fine-tune competing commercial artificial intelligence models, or to operate unauthorized commercial proxies or reselling gateways.

6.3 Enforcement

PinePaper reserves the right, in its sole discretion, to investigate suspected violations, monitor operational metadata and rate thresholds, suspend or terminate accounts, revoke API keys, and remove violating content immediately and without prior notice. Terminations resulting from material breaches of this Acceptable Use Policy forfeit all unused credits.

7. API Keys and Security

• Your API keys are confidential and must be kept secure
• BYOK keys are encrypted with AES-256-GCM before storage
• You are responsible for all usage under your API keys
• Report compromised keys immediately to support@pinepaper.studio

8. Data Retention

We retain your data according to the following policies:

8.1 Account Data

• User profiles: Retained while your account exists. We do not delete accounts for inactivity.
• Credit balance: Credits never expire and remain available until account deletion.
• API keys: Active until you revoke them, or until the expiry date you set when you create one.

8.2 Usage Data

• Usage logs: Retained for 90 days for billing verification and support.
• Billing & transaction records: Kept for as long as your account exists, and after it is closed for as long as tax and accounting law requires.
• Promotional credit history: Kept while your account exists, for fraud prevention.

8.3 Conversation Storage

• Conversations: Kept until you delete them or your account. You may delete conversations at any time.
• Storage: Included in operation costs. No separate storage charges.

8.4 Automatic Cleanup

Data that has a retention period above is deleted automatically when that period ends. You may request an export of your data at any time via support@pinepaper.studio.

9. Service Availability

We strive for high availability but do not guarantee uninterrupted service. We may suspend service for maintenance, security issues, or legal compliance.

10. Warranty Disclaimer ("AS IS")

The Service is provided "AS IS" and "AS AVAILABLE" without warranties of any kind, express or implied. To the maximum extent permitted by law, we disclaim all implied warranties, including merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose, non-infringement, and any warranty that the Service will be uninterrupted, error-free, or secure. Local consumer-protection laws may grant additional rights that cannot be waived; those rights are unaffected by this section.

11. AI Outputs

The Service generates content using large language models (LLMs) and other AI systems. AI outputs may be:

• Inaccurate, incomplete, biased, or fabricated ("hallucinated")
• Inconsistent across identical prompts
• Subject to the terms and policies of the underlying provider (Anthropic, OpenAI, Google, xAI) when in BYOK mode

AI outputs are not professional advice (legal, medical, financial, or otherwise). You are solely responsible for reviewing AI outputs before relying on or distributing them. The Service is not designed for use in high-risk applications including but not limited to medical diagnosis, safety-critical systems, or automated decision-making about individuals' legal rights.

12. Indemnification

You agree to indemnify, defend, and hold harmless PinePaper, its affiliates, and personnel from any claim, loss, liability, or expense (including reasonable legal fees) arising from: (a) your content or prompts, (b) your use of the Service in violation of these Terms or applicable law, (c) your infringement of any third-party right (including intellectual property and privacy rights), or (d) any dispute between you and a third party related to your use of the Service. We will indemnify you against third-party claims that the Service, as provided by us, infringes a registered copyright, trademark, or patent, up to the amounts paid by you in the 12 months preceding the claim, provided you give us prompt written notice and reasonable cooperation.

13. Limitation of Liability

To the maximum extent permitted by law, PinePaper shall not be liable for any indirect, incidental, special, consequential, exemplary, or punitive damages, including loss of profits, data, or business opportunity, even if advised of the possibility. Our aggregate liability for any claim under or related to these Terms shall not exceed the greater of (a) the amount you paid us in the 12 months preceding the claim, or (b) USD $100.

14. Force Majeure

Neither party is liable for any failure or delay in performance to the extent caused by events beyond reasonable control, including acts of God, war, terrorism, civil unrest, government action, labor disputes, natural disasters, internet or telecommunications outages, or third-party infrastructure failures (including failures of Cloudflare, Stripe, or upstream LLM providers).

15. Export Controls and Sanctions

You represent that you (i) are not located in, under the control of, or a national or resident of any country subject to comprehensive U.S., U.K., EU, or Canadian sanctions (currently including Cuba, Iran, North Korea, Syria, and the Crimea, Donetsk, and Luhansk regions); (ii) are not listed on any U.S., U.K., EU, or Canadian restricted-party list (including OFAC SDN, BIS Entity List, EU consolidated sanctions list); and (iii) will not use the Service in violation of any applicable export-control or sanctions laws. We may refuse, restrict, or terminate access to comply with these laws without notice.

16. Copyright & Intellectual Property Takedown Procedure (DMCA / Notice-and-Notice)

PinePaper respects the intellectual property rights of others and responds to formal notices of copyright infringement in accordance with the Canadian Copyright Act (Notice-and-Notice regime, R.S.C., 1985, c. C-42) and the U.S. Digital Millennium Copyright Act (17 U.S.C. § 512).

16.1 Submitting an Infringement Notice

If you believe that your copyrighted work has been copied or made accessible through the Service in a manner that constitutes copyright infringement, please submit a written notification to our Designated Copyright Agent at support@pinepaper.studio with the subject line "Copyright Infringement Notice" containing:

1. Identification of Work: A description or URL of the copyrighted work you claim has been infringed.
2. Location of Material: The exact URL, template identifier, or asset locator on the Service where the allegedly infringing material is located.
3. Contact Information: Your full legal name, physical address, telephone number, and email address.
4. Good Faith Statement: A statement that you have a good-faith belief that the disputed use is not authorized by the copyright owner, its agent, or the law.
5. Accuracy & Authorization: A statement, under penalty of perjury (or under applicable law), that the information in your notice is accurate and that you are the copyright owner or authorized to act on behalf of the owner.
6. Signature: Your electronic or physical signature.

16.2 Response, Forwarding & Counter-Notices

Under Canadian law, we promptly forward compliant notices to the user who uploaded or generated the material in question. Under US DMCA provisions, we may expeditiously remove or disable access to the challenged material. A user whose content was removed may submit a counter-notification complying with 17 U.S.C. § 512(g). PinePaper maintains a policy of terminating, in appropriate circumstances, the accounts of repeat copyright infringers.

17. Termination

You may close your account at any time. We may terminate or suspend access for Terms violations. Upon termination within 7 days of last purchase, unused paid credits may be refunded per Section 4.3. Promotional credits are forfeited upon termination.

18. Changes to Terms

We may update these Terms. Continued use after changes constitutes acceptance. Material changes will be communicated via email or service notification.

19. Governing Law and Jurisdiction

These Terms are governed by the laws of the Province of Ontario, Canada and the federal laws of Canada applicable therein, without regard to conflict-of-law principles. The parties consent to the exclusive jurisdiction of the courts located in Toronto, Ontario, Canada for any dispute not subject to mandatory consumer protections in your jurisdiction of residence. This section does not waive any non-waivable rights you have under your local consumer-protection laws.

20. Severability, Assignability, Waiver

• Severability: If any provision is held unenforceable, the remaining provisions remain in effect.
• Assignment: You may not assign these Terms without our written consent. We may assign these Terms in connection with a merger, acquisition, or sale of assets.
• Waiver: Failure to enforce a provision is not a waiver of future enforcement.
• Entire agreement: These Terms, together with the Privacy Policy, constitute the entire agreement between you and PinePaper regarding the Service.

21. Contact

Questions about these Terms? Contact us:

• Email: support@pinepaper.studio
• Website: pinepaper.studio

These Terms are entered into by and between you and PinePaper Studio Inc. (Studio PinePaper Inc.), a corporation registered in Ontario, Canada (Ontario Corporation Number 1001761095).