End User License Agreement

1. Agreement to this license

This End User License Agreement ("Agreement") governs your use of the Playback macOS application, its updates, and its documentation (together, the "Software"), and is a binding agreement between you and Kyle McLaren ("we", "us", or "our").

By downloading, installing, activating, or using the Software, you agree to be bound by this Agreement. If you do not agree, do not install or use the Software.

2. License grant and seats

Subject to this Agreement and, for paid features, your payment of the applicable fees, we grant you a limited, non-exclusive, non-transferable, non-sublicensable license to install and use Playback for your personal or business purposes. This license is revocable only as set out in this Agreement (see “Fees and refunds” and “Term and termination”); it is not revocable at will.

• Free tier: use the Software without a license key, subject to the free-tier limits below.
• Paid tier: a single license key runs the paid tier on up to two Macs at a time (a floating two-seat pool).
• Deactivate a Mac anytime — in-app or from the license portal — to free a seat for another.
• This Agreement licenses, and does not sell, the Software to you; you acquire no ownership in the Software itself.

3. Free and paid tiers

The Software is usable for free, with some functionality gated and exports limited. Activating a license key unlocks the paid tier, removes the watermark, and lifts the free-tier limits.

The specific gated features and limit values may change between versions; any change applies to the versions in which it ships and does not alter builds you have already installed.

• Free exports carry a visible watermark.
• Free exports are limited in duration — at present, clips longer than 60 seconds of edited timeline are not exported.
• Free exports are limited in resolution — at present, higher-resolution requests are reduced to 1080p.
• The paid tier removes the watermark and these limits.

4. Updates and maintenance

The paid tier is a perpetual license plus a fixed window of updates (JetBrains-style). Your purchase includes one year of updates from the purchase date, and a perpetual right to run any version released during that window — that right does not expire.

After the year, the Software keeps working; you are simply no longer entitled to versions released after your window closed. You can extend your updates window with an optional renewal. Installing a build released after your window operates in the free tier until you renew — the Software attempts to warn you before that happens, but the warning is a convenience and may not appear in every case.

The Software checks for updates automatically (about daily) and installs them with your involvement; it does not silently install updates without surfacing them to you.

5. Activation, validation, and offline use

The paid tier is enforced by activation and periodic validation. Activation binds your license key to a Mac using a device fingerprint. When a network is available, the Software revalidates about once per day, which is how suspensions, seat changes, and renewals reach your Macs.

The Software is designed to keep working offline: if it cannot reach the licensing server, the paid tier continues for a grace period after the last successful validation, and reverts to the free tier only after an extended period offline. Reconnecting and validating restores the paid tier.

You agree not to interfere with, circumvent, or falsify activation, validation, the device fingerprint, or the system clock to obtain paid functionality you have not paid for.

6. Your content and output

As between you and us, you own the recordings, edits, and media you create with Playback. Subject to third-party rights and your obligations below, you may use, publish, and distribute that output for any lawful purpose — including commercial, public, and client-facing use — in both the free and paid tiers.

7. Acceptable use and restrictions

You agree to use the Software lawfully. Except where a restriction is prohibited by law, you may not:

• copy, distribute, sell, rent, sublicense, or transfer the Software or your license key;
• reverse engineer, decompile, or attempt to derive the source code, except to the extent the law expressly permits;
• modify, adapt, or create derivative works of the Software;
• remove or alter proprietary notices, watermarks, or license enforcement, or circumvent tier gating;
• use one license key on more Macs than the seat limit permits, or share or resell a key.

8. Your recordings, lawful use, and indemnification

You are solely responsible for the content you capture and for having all rights, permissions, and consents required to record any screen, application, audio, microphone input, person, or material. You are responsible for complying with all applicable recording-consent, wiretapping, privacy, publicity, data-protection, and intellectual-property laws — which vary by jurisdiction and require the consent of all parties in some. The Software's local-first, on-device design does not relieve you of these responsibilities.

To the maximum extent permitted by law, you will defend, indemnify, and hold harmless Kyle McLaren from any third-party claims, damages, liabilities, losses, and reasonable legal costs arising out of the content you capture, store, export, or distribute with the Software, your use or misuse of the Software, or your breach of this Agreement or of any law.

9. Fees, purchases, and refunds

Paid licenses are sold through our merchant of record, Polar, which processes payment, taxes, invoicing, and refunds. A paid license is a one-time purchase (a perpetual license plus one year of updates), not a recurring subscription; renewals are optional and separately purchased.

Every purchase includes a 30-day money-back guarantee, and refunds are otherwise handled under Polar's refund policy and the terms shown at checkout. A qualifying full refund or chargeback suspends the paid entitlement tied to your license key — the paid tier stops working and the Software reverts to the free tier. A partial refund does not, by itself, suspend your license.

10. Privacy and data

Playback is local-first and low-telemetry. Your screen recordings, edits, and exports are processed and stored on your Mac and are not uploaded to us. Optional features such as speech captions run on-device.

To activate and validate the paid tier, the Software communicates with our licensing provider, Keygen. The license record held there includes your license key, the email address and order identifier for your purchase, and a device fingerprint for each activated Mac — a one-way hash derived from your Mac's hardware identifier. Payment and order details are processed by Polar as merchant of record. The Software includes no analytics or usage telemetry.

See our Privacy Policy for more. Third-party services (Polar, Keygen) process data under their own privacy policies.

11. Ownership, intellectual property, and feedback

The Software (excluding the third-party components identified below, which remain the property of their owners) is owned by Kyle McLaren and protected by copyright, trade secret, and other laws. All rights not expressly granted to you are reserved. The Playback name and branding are ours; nothing here transfers them to you.

If you send us suggestions, ideas, feature requests, or bug reports, you grant us a perpetual, irrevocable, worldwide, royalty-free, sublicensable license to use and incorporate that feedback without restriction or compensation. Feedback is voluntary and not confidential. This does not grant us any rights in the recordings or other output you create.

12. Third-party components

The Software includes third-party open-source components, each licensed under its own terms and used under those licenses. Their notices are included with the Software's documentation.

13. Pre-release versions

Some versions may be designated beta, preview, early-access, or pre-release (including any 0.x version). Any such version is provided for evaluation, may be incomplete or contain more defects than a general release, may change or be discontinued, and may not be backward compatible. Such versions are provided “as is” to the fullest extent permitted by law and are not recommended for production-critical use. This applies only to versions so designated, and is subject to your non-excludable statutory rights.

14. Disclaimers and consumer rights

If you are a consumer, you may have statutory rights under the mandatory consumer-protection law of your country (for example, in the EU, UK, or Australia) that cannot be excluded or limited by contract. Nothing in this Agreement limits or excludes any right, guarantee, or remedy such mandatory law grants you and does not permit to be excluded; the disclaimers and limitations here apply only to the maximum extent the law allows.

Subject to the above, the Software is provided “as is” and “as available”, without warranties of any kind, express or implied, including merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose, title, and non-infringement. We do not warrant that the Software will be uninterrupted, error-free, or that defects will be corrected.

15. Limitation of liability

Nothing in this Agreement excludes liability that cannot be excluded by law, including for fraud, for death or personal injury caused by negligence, or for gross negligence or wilful misconduct.

Subject to that and to your consumer rights, to the maximum extent permitted by law Kyle McLaren will not be liable for any indirect, incidental, special, consequential, or punitive damages, or for any loss of profits, data, goodwill, or recordings. Our total liability arising out of or relating to this Agreement will not exceed the greater of the amount you actually paid for the license giving rise to the claim (whether paid to us or to the merchant of record) or fifty U.S. dollars.

16. Your data and backups

The Software records, edits, and exports media locally on your Mac, and your recordings, projects, and exports are stored on your Mac and are not uploaded to us. You are solely responsible for maintaining your own backups.

To the maximum extent permitted by law, we are not responsible for, and disclaim liability for, any loss, corruption, failed or interrupted export, or inability to recover recordings, projects, or other data, however caused. Recording, editing, and exporting depend on your hardware and available storage; results are not guaranteed.

17. Term and termination

This Agreement is effective until terminated. We may suspend or revoke the paid tier tied to your license key upon a qualifying refund or chargeback, or upon a material, uncured breach or confirmed abuse of the licensing system (for example, key sharing or exceeding the seat limit). Suspending the paid tier reverts the Software to the free tier; it does not, by itself, end your right to use the free tier.

For a breach capable of cure, we will give you notice and a reasonable opportunity (at least 14 days) to cure before terminating this Agreement, except that a breach of the use restrictions or an infringement of our intellectual property may result in immediate termination. On termination of this Agreement you must stop using and delete all copies of the Software. Provisions that by their nature should survive termination will survive.

18. Governing law and general

Except where mandatory local consumer law applies to you, this Agreement is governed by the laws applicable at Kyle McLaren's principal place of business, without regard to conflict-of-laws rules. You will not use the Software where prohibited by applicable export-control or sanctions laws.

This Agreement is the entire agreement between you and us regarding your use of the Software and supersedes prior understandings on that subject. Your purchase is also subject to a separate agreement between you and Polar covering payment, taxes, and refunds. If any provision is unenforceable, the rest remains in effect. We may update this Agreement for future versions of the Software; the version accompanying a release governs that release.