Terms of Conditions for ApprovePictures

By navigating, uploading files to, or interacting with the Service, you (the User) confirm that you have read, understood, and agreed to be bound by these Terms of Conditions and our Privacy Policy. If you do not accept these Terms in their entirety, you are prohibited from utilizing the Platform.

Welcome to ApprovePictures. These Terms of Conditions ("Terms") apply to your access and operational use of approvepictures.com (the "Service", "Platform", or "Application"), which is owned and managed by Christian Nikita Valsvik, a sole proprietorship registered in Norway under organization number 836259882, located at Hjalmevegen 3, 3580 Geilo, Norway ("we", "us", or "our").

1. Agreement to Terms

By navigating, uploading files to, or interacting with the Service, you confirm that you have read, understood, and agreed to be bound by these Terms. If you do not accept these Terms in their entirety, you are prohibited from utilizing the Platform.

2. Platform Purpose and User Roles

ApprovePictures functions as a specialized client proofing tool designed to help Users present, review, and gather analytical feedback on photographic and digital assets. The Service operates around two specific roles:

• Users: Registered or anonymous operators who generate review links, define expiration options, configure sales parameters, and upload media galleries.
• End-Customers / Clients: Guest viewers who navigate shared links to assess media files, assign star values, leave text comments, place visual drawings/annotations, or purchase digital asset delivery access.

3. Tiered Subscriptions and Platform Transactions

We offer distinct tiers of service including Free, Pro, and Studio options. All invoicing, subscription fees, and transaction routing operations are handled securely through our external financial provider, Stripe (via the Lovable Stripe Gateway). ApprovePictures does not collect, record, or inspect raw debit or credit card properties directly on our local servers.

4. Technical Infrastructure Provider Status & Custom Settings Disclaimer

ApprovePictures operates strictly as a technical infrastructure and hosting facilitator. We provide tools that allow Users to customize certain commercial terms for their galleries (including, but not limited to, refund policies, download rules, and usage licenses).

• We do not monitor, verify, audit, or guarantee the legal compliance of any custom terms set by the User.
• The User bears the absolute and sole responsibility to ensure that any commercial terms, refund limitations, or license boundaries they establish via the Platform comply fully with the consumer protection, right of withdrawal (angrerett), and commercial laws of both the User's jurisdiction and the jurisdiction of their End-Customers.

5. Studio Tier Connected Accounts, Platform Fees, and Peer-to-Peer Commercial Disclaimers

Users registered under the "Studio" subscription tier are granted the technical ability to connect their own independent merchant Stripe accounts to the Platform to facilitate direct, online financial payment processing from their respective End-Customers via Stripe Connect Direct Charges.

• Platform Fees / Transaction Commission: ApprovePictures charges and automatically deducts a 5% platform fee from each successful commercial transaction processed through the application. This fee is deducted directly at the point of processing via Stripe Connect. All base payment processing fees applied by Stripe are separate and independent of our 5% Platform Fee.
• Facilitator Status Only: ApprovePictures is not a party, merchant of record, intermediary, or broker to any commercial contract, transaction, agreement, or dispute arising between a User and an End-Customer.
• Refunds, Chargebacks, and Disputes: The connected User retains 100% legal and financial liability for all customer service interactions, order fulfillments, chargebacks, financial disputes, and transaction refund requests. ApprovePictures holds zero liability, responsibility, or operational obligation to manage, arbitrate, or refund financial amounts exchanged via these connected structures. In the event of a customer refund, any platform fees already collected by ApprovePictures are non-refundable.
• Tax, MVA (VAT), and Compliance Obligations: Users are solely responsible for calculating, reporting, collecting, and remitting all relevant local or international taxes, including Norwegian Merverdiavgift (MVA/VAT), sales taxes, or business duties associated with sales transacted through the integration.

6. Indemnification (Holding Us Harmless)

You agree to defend, indemnify, and hold harmless ApprovePictures, its owner (Christian Nikita Valsvik), and its sub-processors from and against any and all claims, damages, obligations, losses, liabilities, costs, debt, and expenses (including but not limited to attorney's fees) arising from:

• Your use of and access to the Service;
• Your violation of any term of these Terms;
• Your violation of any third-party right, including without limitation any copyright, property, or privacy right;
• Any claim or dispute arising between you and an End-Customer, including claims related to non-delivery, fraudulent behavior, breach of contract, or illegal refund/cancellation policies.

This defense and indemnification obligation will survive these Terms and your use of the Service.

7. Failed Payments, Accounts Past Due, and Lockout Terms

When an ongoing subscription payment fails to clear, the respective account status is classified as past_due. We afford a strict 30-day grace period under this designation, during which the following rules apply:

• Uploaded digital assets, user accounts, and history logs are preserved and will not be immediately deleted.
• Operational access is systematically limited: a permanent watermark is applied to all active images, and the creation or distribution of new review galleries is locked.

If payment fails to settle before the expiration of the 30-day grace period, the profile will switch to unpaid status. This results in direct suspension and the permanent deletion of associated media databases.

8. Anonymous Upload Terms

Users choosing to leverage our services without registering an account explicitly acknowledge that such configurations are highly ephemeral. All content items, uploaded metadata, and client-side comment threads linked to anonymous galleries are permanently and automatically purged from our European Union infrastructure exactly 7 days after the initial upload. ApprovePictures holds zero liability for data destruction resulting from this automated cleanup.

9. Asset Ownership and Intellectual Property Licenses

Users maintain full, unrestricted copyright and legal title to all visual components uploaded to the platform. By uploading media items, you provide ApprovePictures with a limited, royalty-free, worldwide, non-exclusive license strictly to store, reformat, distribute, and display your assets to enable the proofing interactions chosen by you and your clients. We explicitly guarantee that your intellectual assets will never be packaged, sold, or processed for the training of artificial intelligence (AI) systems or machine learning engines.

10. No Backup Warranty and Data Deletion Risk

ApprovePictures is strictly a client-proofing tool and client interaction workflow provider. Under no circumstances should the Platform be utilized as a primary file backup, permanent cloud database, or archival storage solution for your digital assets. Users are under a strict, ongoing obligation to maintain independent, local, and redundant back-up copies of all uploaded media files on their own secure hardware.

While we implement standard industry protocols to protect platform integrity, you explicitly acknowledge and agree that digital content may be corrupted, temporarily inaccessible, or permanently deleted due to software bugs, technical system errors, automated scripts, maintenance periods, or infrastructure failures. ApprovePictures holds absolutely no liability, financial or otherwise, for the loss, corruption, or deletion of any uploaded media files or associated client review data.

11. Gallery Link Sharing, Password Responsibility, and Access Accountability

The Platform secures active gallery links by deploying unguessable, cryptographically generated 20-character sharing tokens. However, the ultimate management, distribution, and confidentiality of these links rest solely with the Users. You acknowledge and agree that:

• If a sharing link is distributed to unintended third parties, sent to incorrect e-mail addresses due to user error, or shared publicly by you or your clients, ApprovePictures holds no liability for any unauthorized viewing of your media assets.
• Where optional password gates are active, Users are responsible for establishing strong, unique passwords. While the Platform enforces systemic brute-force protection (rate-limiting input validation per IP address), we hold no responsibility for unauthorized access resulting from compromised, guessed, or weak user-defined passwords.

12. Acceptable Use and Prohibited Content

You are solely responsible for all images, text, and data uploaded to or shared through the Service. You agree not to upload, store, or transmit any material that is illegal, defamatory, obscene, invasive of privacy, infringing upon intellectual property rights, or otherwise harmful to third parties. ApprovePictures reserves the absolute right, without prior notice, to review, flag, or completely remove content that violates these provisions, and to suspend or terminate accounts of offending users immediately.

13. Prohibited Behavior and Infrastructure Protection

Users agree to respect fair server storage limitations. You may not utilize ApprovePictures as a general file hosting dump, network drive backup, or distribute harmful materials. Automated extraction, high-frequency script uploading, or tasks designed to intentionally stress the database (managed via Supabase and Lovable Cloud) are immediate grounds for account termination.

14. Limitation of Liability

To the maximum extent permitted by applicable law, ApprovePictures, its owner (Christian Nikita Valsvik), and its sub-processors provide the Service on an "AS IS" and "AS AVAILABLE" basis without warranties of any kind. We do not guarantee that the Service will be uninterrupted, timely, secure, or completely error-free. In no event shall we be liable for any indirect, incidental, special, consequential, or punitive damages, including without limitation, loss of profits, loss of data, loss of business opportunities, or client relationships arising from platform downtime, technical failures, or data loss.

15. Governing Law and Arbitration

These Terms and any operational claims shall be governed exclusively by the laws of Norway. Any active litigation, dispute, or legal conflict arising from your interaction with the Platform will be handled within the exclusive jurisdiction of the Norwegian court systems, with local venue assignment mapped to the court serving Geilo, Norway.