Terms of Service

Who you're dealing with

These terms are between you and Fermata, Inc. ("Fermata", "we", "us").

They cover fermata.me, Fermata Composer, Love Bird, Encore, and anything else we point at them. Using any of it means you accept them. If you don't, don't use it.

Your account

• You must be at least 13. In the EEA and UK, at least 16, or have a parent's consent where your country allows a lower age.
• If you're under 18, you may use Fermata only with the involvement of a parent or guardian who has read these terms and agrees to them on your behalf.
• Give us accurate information and keep it current.
• Your account is yours. Don't share it, sell it, or let someone else use it.
• Keep your password to yourself. Tell us if it gets out.
• One person, one account. Don't make a new one to get around a suspension.

Who takes your money

In plain terms: when you buy something on the web, your contract for that purchase is with Paddle, and Paddle's buyer terms apply to it. Billing questions, receipts, and refunds go to Paddle. We never see or store your card number.

Buying through the App Store or Steam? That purchase is with Apple or Valve, under their terms.

What things cost

Prices are in US dollars and exclude tax. Sales tax or VAT is added at checkout where it applies, and Paddle handles it.

Subscriptions renew automatically at the then-current price until cancelled. Cancel any time — in your account settings, or through Paddle, Apple, or Steam depending on where you bought. Cancelling stops the next charge; you keep your benefits until the end of the period you already paid for.

If we change prices we'll tell you before it affects a renewal.

Eggs and Diamonds

They exist only inside Fermata games and only while your account does. If your account closes — by you or by us — any unused balance ends with it and is not compensated.

They are not a stored-value instrument, not a payment method, and not a security. They cannot be used anywhere except in our games, and they cannot be used to pay anyone but us.

We may change what things cost in Eggs or Diamonds, and we may add or retire what they buy.

Refunds

Paddle handles refunds as merchant of record, under Paddle's buyer terms. Ask Paddle first — they're quick.

If you're in the EU or UK

You normally have 14 days to withdraw from a purchase of digital content. Because we deliver instantly, that right can lapse — but only if, during checkout, you expressly consent to immediate delivery and acknowledge losing the right. Checkout is operated by Paddle as merchant of record; any such consent is collected there, not by us.

If that consent wasn't collected from you, your 14-day right stands and you get your money back.

Everywhere else

Purchases are final once delivered, except where the law says otherwise — and where it does, the law wins over this paragraph. Nothing here removes a right you have that can't be removed.

Always true

• Consumed Eggs and Diamonds are never refundable. Once spent, they're spent.
• Cancelling a subscription stops future charges. It doesn't refund the current period.
• App Store and Steam purchases follow Apple's and Valve's refund policies, not this one.
• We may refund at our discretion. Doing it once doesn't oblige us to do it again.

How to behave

Don't:

• Break the law, or use Fermata to hurt or harass someone.
• Try to break, overload, reverse-engineer, or get unauthorised access to the service.
• Use bots, scrapers, or automation to play, farm currency, or pull our content.
• Buy, sell, or trade accounts, currency, or items for real money.
• Impersonate anyone, or pretend a character said something it didn't.
• Create or share content that glorifies or instructs self-harm, suicide, or eating disorders.
• Solicit personal information from anyone under 18.
• Upload anything illegal, or anything sexual involving minors — ever.
• Use our AI characters to generate content that violates the AI providers' policies.

We can remove content and suspend accounts that break these rules.

AI content

• The characters are fictional AI. Not real people, not based on real people, not employees, not professionals.
• What they say is generated. It can be wrong, strange, or offensive. It is not advice — not medical, legal, financial, or personal. Don't act on it.
• They are not a support service, not a therapist, and not a substitute for professional help. No human is monitoring your conversations in real time.
• If you are in crisis or thinking about harming yourself: in the US, call or text 988 (Suicide & Crisis Lifeline). Elsewhere, findahelpline.com lists free, confidential help in your country. Please reach a human — the characters cannot help you with this.
• Output isn't unique. Another player may see something similar.
• Your conversations go to third-party AI providers to generate replies. Our Privacy Policy names every one.

Your content, our content

Yours

What you write stays yours. You give us a worldwide, non-exclusive, royalty-free licence to host, store, process, and analyse it so we can run the service, generate your story, and improve our games over time — including, in future and only under the safeguards in our Privacy Policy (notice first, de-identification, and your right to opt out), training AI to run better stories. That licence ends when you delete the content — except where we're legally required to keep a record.

Ours

Fermata, Love Bird, Encore, Composer, the characters, the art, the writing, the code, and the names and logos are ours and stay ours. Using the service doesn't give you rights to any of it.

Ending things

You can stop any time — delete your account in the app. No email, no phone call.

We can suspend or close your account if you break these terms, if we're legally required to, or if we shut the service down. Unless you've done something serious or illegal, we'll give you notice and a chance to get your data out.

If we close the service, we'll give reasonable notice and refund any prepaid, unused subscription time. Unused Eggs and Diamonds are not refunded — see section 5.

Sections 5, 9, 11, 12, and 13 survive the end of these terms.

What we promise

We'll try hard to keep Fermata running well. But the service is provided "as is". We don't promise it will be uninterrupted, error-free, or that AI output will meet your expectations.

To the extent the law allows, we disclaim implied warranties of merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose, and non-infringement. Some places don't allow that, so some of this may not apply to you — and where it doesn't, your rights are untouched.

Limits

To the extent the law allows, we're not liable for indirect, incidental, special, consequential, or punitive damages, or for lost profits, data, or goodwill.

Our total liability for any claim is limited to the greater of US $100 or what you paid us in the 12 months before the claim.

Nothing here limits liability for death or personal injury caused by our negligence, for fraud, or for anything else that can't legally be limited.

Disputes

Talk to us first

Before anything formal, email legal@fermata.me with what went wrong and what you want. We'll try in good faith to fix it within 60 days. Most things end here.

Then: individual arbitration

If we can't fix it, you and Fermata, Inc. agree to resolve the dispute by binding individual arbitration under the American Arbitration Association's Consumer Arbitration Rules, instead of a court trial. The arbitration happens in your county of residence or remotely, and AAA's consumer fee schedule applies — for most claims that means we bear most of the cost.

Small claims stay in small claims. Either of us can use small-claims court instead, for claims that fit there. Nothing in this section stops you from complaining to a consumer-protection agency or a data-protection authority.

No class actions

Disputes are resolved one on one. Neither of us may bring a class, collective, or representative action. If a court finds this waiver unenforceable for a given dispute, this whole arbitration section does not apply to that dispute — it goes to court under the Governing law section instead.

You can opt out

You can reject this arbitration section by emailing legal@fermata.me within 30 days of first accepting these terms, subject line "Arbitration opt-out", from the email on your account. Opting out changes nothing else in these terms.

If you're a consumer in the EU or UK, mandatory local law may let you sue at home regardless of this section — we don't take that away.

Governing law

These terms are governed by the laws of the State of California, USA, without regard to conflict-of-law rules. Disputes go to the courts of Los Angeles County, California.

If you're a consumer, you keep the mandatory protections of the country you live in — this section doesn't take those away.

Changes

We'll update these terms as the product changes. For significant changes we'll give notice before they take effect. Carrying on using Fermata after that means you accept them. If you don't, delete your account.

Contact

hello@fermata.me
Fermata, Inc.

Billing, receipts, and refunds: contact Paddle — they're the merchant of record.