Effective October 14, 2026
This Agreement applies to Arc Search version 1.0 and every later release.
This End User License Agreement (the "Agreement") is a legal agreement between you and Arcantus Sound Technologies LLC ("Arcantus", "we", or "us") governing your use of the Arc Search software.
You accept this Agreement by checking the box or clicking the button that indicates your acceptance when this Agreement is presented to you, whether when you request a download, when you purchase a License, or when you first run the Software. If you do not accept this Agreement, you may not install or use the Software and you shall delete any copy of it in your possession.
Arcantus's Privacy Policy, published at arcantus.io/legal/privacy/, describes how Arcantus handles personal information in connection with the Software.
1. Definitions
In this Agreement:
1.1 "Agreement" means this End User License Agreement, including any later version of it that applies to you under section 20.2.
1.2 "Arcantus", "we", and "us" mean Arcantus Sound Technologies LLC.
1.3 "you" means the person or organization that accepts this Agreement. Where an organization assigns a License to a named person under section 4.3, "you" also means that person in respect of that License.
1.4 "Software" means the Arc Search application, version 1.0 and every later release, in either its Evaluation Copy or Licensed Copy form, together with every Update to it that Arcantus supplies.
1.5 "License" means the license to the Software granted under section 3.
1.6 "License Key" means the key that Arcantus issues on the purchase of a License and that is entered into the Software to activate a Computer.
1.7 "Licensed Copy" means a copy of the Software in which a License Key is currently activated.
1.8 "Evaluation Copy" means a copy of the Software distributed for evaluation in which no License Key has been activated.
1.9 "Evaluation Period" means the period of fourteen days described in section 7.
1.10 "Computer" means a computer that you own or control.
1.11 "License Server" means the server operated by Arcantus that activates Computers, counts the Computers activated on a License, and releases them.
1.12 "Merchant of Record" means Sold through Link, LLC, an affiliate of Stripe, Inc. ("Stripe"), in its capacity as the merchant of record for the purchase of a License under section 8.
1.13 "Update" means any patch, fix, or later release of the Software that Arcantus makes available.
1.14 Defined terms have the same meaning in the singular and the plural.
2. Scope of this Agreement
2.1 The Software is distributed in two forms, and this Agreement governs both:
(a) the Evaluation Copy, which permits use of the full Software for the Evaluation Period under section 7; and
(b) the Licensed Copy, which is the Software activated with a purchased License Key under sections 3 to 6 and 8.
3. Grant of License
3.1 On your purchase of a License, and subject to this Agreement, Arcantus grants you a personal, non-exclusive, non-transferable license to install and use the Software for your own work, including paid work for clients.
3.2 The License may not be sublicensed, assigned, or transferred to any other person, except as section 4.3 provides.
4. License Scope
4.1 A License belongs to one person. That person may install and use the Software on up to two Computers at the same time.
4.2 A License may not be shared. Each person who uses the Software requires a separate License.
4.3 A company or other organization may purchase Licenses for the persons who work for it. Each such License shall be assigned to one named person, who is then the person to whom section 4.1 applies. When that person leaves the organization or no longer requires the Software, the organization may reassign the License to another person. To reassign a License, the Software shall be signed out on the previous person's Computers under section 6.4 and activated on the new person's Computers under section 6.1.
5. Term
5.1 The License is perpetual for the major version purchased. The License Key is entered once, and the License covers the Software at version 1.0 and every later 1.x release, including every Update that Arcantus publishes to the 1.x line, at no further charge.
5.2 A new major version of Arc Search, such as Arc Search 2.0, requires the purchase of a separate License. Your License to the 1.x Software continues under this Agreement after a new major version is released.
5.3 This Agreement continues until terminated under section 18.
6. Activation
6.1 Activation. A purchased License is delivered as a License Key. To use the Software on a Computer, you enter the License Key in the Software, which contacts the License Server to activate that Computer. Activation requires an internet connection and is performed once per Computer.
6.2 Offline use. After activation, the Software operates without an internet connection. The Software does not require a connection to search, play, or export audio.
6.3 Number of Computers. The License Server counts the Computers activated on a License and will refuse to activate a third Computer while two Computers are active.
6.4 Moving to another Computer. To move the Software from one Computer to another, you shall first sign out on the Computer you are leaving. The sign out control is in the Software's preferences. Signing out instructs the License Server to release that Computer's place on the License, which frees that place for another Computer. Signing out requires an internet connection.
6.5 Lost or failed Computer. If you can no longer sign out on a Computer, for example because it has been lost, wiped, or has failed, you may write to hello@arcantus.io and Arcantus will release that Computer's place on the License.
7. Evaluation License
7.1 Arcantus grants you a license to use the full Software as an Evaluation Copy for fourteen days from the first time you run it, for the purpose of evaluating it before purchasing a License.
7.2 The Evaluation Period ends at the end of that fourteen-day period. When the Evaluation Period ends, the Software ceases to operate until a License Key is activated in it.
7.3 The Evaluation Period is counted on your Computer. Running the Evaluation Copy does not require an internet connection, and the Evaluation Copy makes no network request of its own to time the Evaluation Period.
7.4 One evaluation is provided per person. You may not reset, extend, or repeat the Evaluation Period, or use the Evaluation Copy in place of a License.
7.5 Activating a License Key in the Software ends the Evaluation Period on that Computer immediately and permanently, regardless of how many days of the Evaluation Period remain. If the License Key is later signed out of that Computer, the Software ceases to operate on it until a License Key is activated again, and no part of the Evaluation Period is restored.
8. Purchase and Merchant of Record
8.1 Licenses are sold through Stripe. Sold through Link, LLC, an affiliate of Stripe, is the Merchant of Record for the purchase.
8.2 Your purchase transaction, including payment, the calculation and collection of any sales tax, VAT, or GST, your receipt or invoice, and any refund of the payment, is with Stripe. Your receipt identifies the purchase as "Sold through Link," and your payment statement shows a Link descriptor, and purchase and payment questions are handled by Stripe's support for purchases made through Link.
8.3 The License is granted by Arcantus under this Agreement. Arcantus owns the Software, grants you the right to use it, and provides product support for it. Stripe does not license the Software to you and does not provide support for the Software.
8.4 Stripe's terms for purchases made through Link, including its refund policy, apply to your purchase in addition to this Agreement.
8.5 Prices are shown at checkout. The price payable is the price shown at the time of purchase.
9. Refunds
9.1 Refund within 14 days. You may request a full refund of the price paid for a License for any reason within 14 days after the day of purchase. No reason is required. To request a refund, write to hello@arcantus.io with your order details, or contact Stripe's support for purchases made through Link. Arcantus will confirm receipt of your request by email and will refund the full amount you paid, using the same means of payment you used for the purchase, within 14 days after receiving your request, at no cost to you.
9.2 After 14 days. After 14 days from the day of purchase, a refund is available only in accordance with Stripe's refund policy for purchases made through Link, or at the discretion of Arcantus. Nothing in this section limits any right to a refund that the law of the place where you live gives you and that cannot be excluded by agreement.
9.3 Effect of a refund. A refund ends the License. When a refund is issued, whether by Arcantus or by Stripe, the License Key is revoked and the Software ceases to operate on every Computer on which it was activated the next time that Computer contacts the License Server. You shall delete every copy of the Software in your possession.
9.4 Chargebacks. A chargeback or payment dispute has the same effect as a refund under section 9.3: the License Key is revoked on every Computer.
9.5 Contact before a dispute. Arcantus asks that, before you dispute a charge with your bank or card issuer, you contact Arcantus at hello@arcantus.io or Stripe's support for purchases made through Link. Within the period in section 9.1, a refund is available on request. This request is not a condition and does not limit any right you have to dispute a charge.
9.6 Consumers in the European Union and the United Kingdom. If you are a consumer who lives in the European Union or the United Kingdom, you may withdraw from your purchase of a License, without giving any reason, within 14 days after the day of purchase. To withdraw, write to hello@arcantus.io with your order details and a statement that you are withdrawing from the purchase. Arcantus will confirm receipt of your withdrawal by email and will refund the full amount you paid, using the same means of payment you used for the purchase, within 14 days after receiving your withdrawal, at no cost to you. When the refund is issued, the License ends under section 9.3. This right is in addition to any right to a refund under the rest of this section 9.
10. Restrictions
You shall not:
(a) give the installer, the application, a License Key, or any part of the Software to any other person, or publish any of them, without the express written permission of Arcantus;
(b) rent, lease, lend, or sell the Software, or make it available as a service to others;
(c) reverse engineer, decompile, or disassemble the Software, or extract, reconstruct, or study its internal design, algorithms, models, or source code, except to the narrow extent that applicable law gives you a right that cannot be waived by agreement;
(d) copy, extract, or reuse any file, code, data, model, or configuration value contained in the installed Software, other than the audio you export through the Software's own features in the ordinary course of using it;
(e) circumvent, disable, or interfere with the License activation, the Evaluation Period, or any other technical measure in the Software;
(f) remove or alter any notice of ownership; or
(g) use the Software to build a competing product.
11. Feedback
11.1 If you send Arcantus feedback, bug reports, feature requests, or suggestions, Arcantus may use them freely, without restriction and without payment or credit to you.
11.2 You retain the right to use your own feedback as you see fit.
11.3 Do not send Arcantus any information that you consider confidential or that belongs to another person.
12. Data Collection and Privacy
12.1 General. The Software runs on your Computer. This section describes what the Software stores on your Computer and every case in which it contacts a server.
12.2 Data that remains on your Computer.
(a) Your audio files are never uploaded or sent to Arcantus. The Software reads your files in place. The Software stores on your Computer the location and metadata of each file, and the data it computes to search, display, and play your files: search vectors, waveform data, playback copies of compressed files, and the audio excerpts you export to other applications.
(b) Your library contents, file paths, and search queries remain on your Computer. Arcantus does not receive them. The Software's diagnostic logs, which remain on your Computer, do not record file paths or search queries.
(c) The Software performs no analytics, usage tracking, or crash reporting of its own. No analytics or crash reporting library is included in the Software.
12.3 Servers the Software contacts. The Software contacts two servers, both operated by Arcantus on infrastructure provided by Cloudflare. As with any web request, each request makes your IP address and the time of the request visible to the server it reaches. No request carries any information about your library, your files, or your searches.
(a) Updates and model files. A Licensed Copy checks for Updates each time it is launched, by downloading a small signed update description from the Arcantus download server. It also downloads the search model files from that server if the copies installed with the Software are missing or do not match the version the Software expects. Some of these requests include the version of the Software you are running. An Evaluation Copy does not check for Updates.
(b) License. When you enter a License Key, when you sign out, and once each time a Licensed Copy is launched, the Software contacts the License Server. Each of these requests carries your License Key and a random identifier that the Software generated on your Computer the first time it was run. Activation and the per-launch check also carry the version of the Software you are running and the operating system family (macOS or Windows). The identifier is not derived from your hardware and is not shared with anyone other than the service providers that operate the License Server for Arcantus. It exists only so that the License Server can count the Computers on a License under section 6.3. If the License Server cannot be reached at launch, the Software continues to operate normally.
(c) Evaluation Copy. An Evaluation Copy contacts the License Server only if you enter a License Key in it. It makes no request to time the Evaluation Period.
12.4 Microsoft components on Windows.
(a) On Windows, the Software includes components supplied by Microsoft. Where such a component provides a setting that turns off its reporting to Microsoft, the Software applies that setting before the component does any work. Microsoft documents that a single event may be emitted before an application is able to apply it.
(b) Some Microsoft components report to Microsoft under your own Windows diagnostic data setting rather than under any control of Arcantus: a graphics component the Software includes, which can report only which graphics operations it created and whether they succeeded, and never anything you typed, opened, or heard; the browser engine that draws the Software's interface, which Microsoft documents as collecting diagnostic data and, if it crashes, sending a crash report; and Windows itself, which reports on the applications running on it. Anything these components report goes to Microsoft, not to Arcantus, and is governed by your Windows settings and Microsoft's privacy statement.
12.5 Your audio. You are responsible for having the rights to the audio you index and use with the Software.
13. Intellectual Property
13.1 Arcantus owns the Software and every part of it, including all intellectual property rights in it. This Agreement grants you permission to use the Software and transfers no other right to you.
13.2 You own your audio files and anything you create with the Software. Arcantus claims no rights in them.
14. Third-Party Software
14.1 The Software includes third-party open source software. Those components
are licensed to you under their own terms, which are listed in the
THIRD-PARTY-LICENSES.md file installed with the Software.
14.2 Where a third-party license conflicts with this Agreement, that license governs its own component.
15. Updates
15.1 A Licensed Copy checks for Updates and may download and install them. Your License covers every 1.x Update under section 5.1.
15.2 A copy downloaded for evaluation becomes a Licensed Copy when a License Key is activated in it, and then receives Updates under section 15.1. An Evaluation Copy does not check for Updates.
15.3 Updates are governed by this Agreement unless Arcantus provides different terms with a specific Update.
15.4 Arcantus may add, change, or withdraw features in an Update for valid reasons, such as security, compatibility with operating systems, legal requirements, or improvement of the Software. Arcantus does not undertake that any particular feature will remain in the Software, but Arcantus will not use an Update to remove the Software's core functions of indexing, searching, playing, and exporting audio. If you are a consumer, nothing in this section limits any right the law of the place where you live gives you in relation to a change that negatively affects your use of the Software.
16. Disclaimer of Warranties
16.1 TO THE FULLEST EXTENT PERMITTED BY LAW, THE SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED AS IS AND AS AVAILABLE, AND ARCANTUS DISCLAIMS ALL WARRANTIES, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING ANY IMPLIED WARRANTY OF MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE, AND NON-INFRINGEMENT. ARCANTUS DOES NOT WARRANT THAT THE SOFTWARE WILL MEET YOUR REQUIREMENTS, WILL BE FREE OF DEFECTS, OR WILL OPERATE WITHOUT INTERRUPTION.
16.2 Arcantus works to keep the Software free of defects and operating without interruption, and to correct defects that come to its attention. This is a statement of Arcantus's intent. It is not a warranty or a promise of any result, and it does not limit section 16.1.
16.3 The Software does not modify your audio files. You are responsible for maintaining your own backups, and you shall not rely on the Software as the only copy of, or the only means of access to, any work.
16.4 Some jurisdictions do not allow the exclusion of implied warranties, so parts of this section may not apply to you. Nothing in this Agreement limits any warranty or guarantee that the law gives you and that cannot be excluded.
17. Limitation of Liability
17.1 To the fullest extent permitted by law, Arcantus shall not be liable for any indirect, incidental, special, consequential, or punitive damages, or for any lost profits, lost revenue, lost data, or business interruption, arising out of or related to your use of the Software, even if Arcantus has been advised of the possibility of such damages.
17.2 To the fullest extent permitted by law, the total liability of Arcantus arising out of or related to this Agreement shall not exceed the greater of the amount you paid for the Software in the twelve months before the claim, or twenty US dollars.
17.3 Nothing in this Agreement excludes or limits liability that cannot lawfully be excluded or limited, including liability for death or personal injury caused by negligence, or for fraud.
18. Termination
18.1 By you. You may terminate this Agreement at any time by uninstalling the Software and deleting your copies of it. Termination under this section does not entitle you to a refund except as section 9 provides.
18.2 By Arcantus. Arcantus may terminate this Agreement, and revoke your License Key, if you materially breach this Agreement, including section 10, and either the breach cannot be remedied or you have not remedied it within 14 days after Arcantus notifies you of it.
18.3 Refund, chargeback, and end of evaluation. The License also ends when the payment for it is refunded or charged back under sections 9.3 and 9.4, and the evaluation license under section 7 ends when the Evaluation Period ends under section 7.2.
18.4 Effect of termination. On termination, your right to use the Software ends immediately, and you shall delete every copy of the Software in your possession. Sections 9.3, 9.4, 11, 13, 14, 16, 17, 19, and 20 survive termination.
19. Governing Law and Jurisdiction
19.1 This Agreement is governed by the laws of the State of Delaware, USA, without regard to its conflict of laws rules.
19.2 The state and federal courts located in Delaware have exclusive jurisdiction over any dispute arising from this Agreement.
19.3 If you are a consumer, sections 19.1 and 19.2 do not deprive you of the protection of the mandatory consumer laws of the country where you live, or of your right to bring a claim in the courts of that country where the law gives you one.
20. General Provisions
20.1 Entire agreement. This Agreement is the entire agreement between you and Arcantus concerning the Software and replaces any earlier understanding concerning it. Your purchase transaction with Stripe is governed separately by Stripe's terms under section 8.
20.2 Changes to this Agreement. Arcantus may change this Agreement. Any changed version will be published, with a new effective date, alongside the download. The version in force for a purchase is the version published when the purchase was made. A later version applies to you if you accept it, for example when you install an Update that presents it for your acceptance. Arcantus will not use a change to reduce the License you have paid for.
20.3 Severability. If any provision of this Agreement is held unenforceable, the remaining provisions remain in force.
20.4 No waiver. A failure by Arcantus to enforce a provision of this Agreement is not a waiver of that provision.
20.5 Contact. Questions about this Agreement may be sent to hello@arcantus.io.
20.6 Assignment. Arcantus may assign this Agreement to a successor to its business or to the Software, including in a merger, acquisition, or sale of assets. You may transfer your rights under this Agreement only as section 4.3 provides.
20.7 Notices. Arcantus may give you notice under this Agreement by email to the address associated with your License or your download request.
20.8 Export and sanctions. You shall comply with the export control and sanctions laws of the United States and of other countries that apply to you. You may not use or download the Software in, or provide it to any person located in, a country or region subject to comprehensive United States sanctions, or provide it to any person on a United States government restricted-party list.
Arcantus Sound Technologies LLC