Publisher Terms

These Publisher Terms govern the release of plugins through Pook Audio's release and licensing platform. Pook Audio is a trading name of Ayal Yishay, sole proprietor, registered and operating under the laws of the State of Israel. In these Publisher Terms, “publisher,” “you” and “your” mean the account that submits a plugin for release.

They apply only to accounts that submit a plugin for release — under a Publishing Plan or a Free Release. If you only use the Software to build Creations for yourself, they do not apply to you.

These Publisher Terms sit on top of the Terms of Service and do not replace them. Every capitalised term used here has the meaning given to it in the Terms of Service, and every obligation in the Terms of Service continues to apply to you. Where these Publisher Terms add a requirement that concerns releasing a plugin, that requirement applies in addition to the Terms of Service.

You accept these Publisher Terms once, when you first submit a plugin for release. That acceptance covers every later submission on the same account.

You may not submit for release a plugin that contains or does any of the following.

Infringing material. Samples, recordings, code, graphics, fonts, trademarks, trade names or artist names that you do not own or hold the rights to use, or a clone of another product that you have no right to reproduce.

Malicious or deceptive behaviour. Code that exfiltrates a customer's data, contacts servers beyond the licensing calls the platform makes, mines cryptocurrency or otherwise uses a customer's machine for a purpose of your own, or that misrepresents what the plugin does.

Harmful output. Audio capable of damaging a listener's hearing or their equipment, and hidden content that a customer is not told about.

Unlawful interface or branding content. Any text, image, name or other material shown in the plugin's interface or used in its branding that is unlawful under applicable law.

Misleading commerce. A listing, description or price that misrepresents what a customer receives, including a plugin advertised as free that is not in fact usable for free.

Automated checks run on every submission. In addition, a person reviews the first release of each title, and looks at, among other things, whether the name collides with an existing title, whether the branding is obviously yours, and whether the description matches the plugin.

No audit of the plugin's code or of its audio processing is performed. Pook Audio does not read your DSP, does not test how your plugin sounds, and does not verify that it is safe, correct or fit for any purpose. That remains your responsibility under the Terms of Service.

Review is a condition of Pook Audio signing the build. It is not an endorsement, not a guarantee of quality, and not legal clearance of anything in your plugin.

Pook Audio may decline to build, sign or host a submission, and may withdraw a build, signature or hosting it has already provided, at its sole discretion. The categories in Section 2 are examples of what will be refused, not an exhaustive list.

Declining a new title is not a withdrawal. A refusal to build or sign a new title, or a new version of a title, never withdraws titles you have already published.

Withdrawing a published title requires a reason and notice. Pook Audio will not withdraw a title that is already published without giving you a stated reason for the withdrawal and notice of it.

Customers who already activated keep working. A removal stops distribution, not activation. Customers who have already activated the plugin continue to be able to use it, unless the law compels Pook Audio to act otherwise.

When a title is first approved, its identity is fixed. The following cannot change afterwards:

• The plugin name.
• The bundle identifier.
• The plugin code.
• The manufacturer code.
• The product identifier.

An update whose contents disagree with the identity recorded for that title is rejected.

This is what keeps your customers' existing projects loading: a digital audio workstation finds a plugin in a saved session by these identifiers, so changing one would break every session that already uses your plugin. If you want a different identity, release a new title.

The plugin you release carries Pook Audio's runtime inside it. That runtime is licensed, not sold, and Pook Audio retains all rights in it.

You may distribute the runtime solely as embedded within the released plugin, to your end customers, and only under terms at least as protective of Pook Audio's rights as these Publisher Terms. You may not redistribute the runtime on its own, extract it from a plugin, or reverse-engineer, decompile or disassemble it, except to the extent such a restriction is prohibited by applicable law.

The runtime includes third-party components whose licenses require attribution, including the JUCE framework. You must keep the attribution notice Pook Audio supplies intact and reproduce it wherever your plugin is delivered, including its installer license page and its about panel.

A Publishing Plan carries a limit on the number of released plugins and a limit on the number of customers. Both are checked when a release is submitted, against the plan in force at that moment. A submission that would take you past either limit is not accepted.

The limits attached to each plan are published at pookaudio.com/pricing. Changes to plans and to what each plan includes are governed by the Terms of Service.

A Publishing Plan may be cancelled at any time, and your access continues to the end of the period you have already paid for. No pro-rated, partial, or proportional refunds are provided for the unused portion of a billing period. This mirrors our Refund Policy.

When the plan ends:

• No new licenses are issued and no new builds are produced.
• Your publisher dashboard becomes read-only.
• Your catalog stays alive.

Nothing is taken away from the customers you already have. Each of your released plugins is rebuilt with an offline license, and every existing customer is emailed a perpetual key for it — usable indefinitely, on any number of machines, with no server and no Pook account.

Resubscribing resumes everything.

Pook Audio is not the merchant of record for your sales. You sell to your own customers under your own brand, through your own store, and that sale is a contract between you and your customer. Pook Audio issues licenses rather than invoices, and holds no payment card or bank details belonging to your customers.

You choose a setting that determines what happens to a license when your store reports that the underlying sale was refunded or charged back, and you authorise Pook Audio to revoke the license automatically in accordance with that setting.

You warrant that the refund policy you publish to your customers matches the setting you have chosen, and you are responsible for keeping the two aligned if you change either.

Pook Audio does not warrant that the licensing system cannot be defeated. No licensing system is unbreakable, and this one is no exception.

Pook Audio is not liable for revenue lost to piracy, circumvention or unauthorised copying of your plugins.

You must not represent otherwise to your own customers — do not describe the plugin, its licensing, or Pook Audio's platform as copy-proof, uncrackable, or otherwise guaranteed against circumvention.

In respect of your customers' personal data, you are the controller and Pook Audio is your processor: you decide why that data is collected, and Pook Audio processes it only on your instructions, to issue and check licenses for your plugins.

The Data Processing Addendum sets out the terms of that processing and forms part of these Publisher Terms.

You must maintain your own privacy policy covering your relationship with your customers, and keep it accurate and reachable. It is your privacy policy, not Pook Audio's, that customer-facing surfaces link to.

You agree to indemnify, defend, and hold harmless Pook Audio, its owner, affiliates, agents, contractors, and service providers from and against any and all claims, demands, losses, damages, liabilities, costs, and expenses (including reasonable attorneys' fees and legal costs) arising out of or in connection with the plugins you release, your sale of them, and your relationship with your customers.

Pook Audio's total aggregate liability arising out of or in connection with these Publisher Terms is capped as set out in the Limitation of Liability section of the Terms of Service, and the disclaimers of warranty in that document apply here in full.

Nothing in this section requires indemnification, or excludes or limits liability, beyond what is permitted under applicable law.

Pook Audio may update, modify or replace these Publisher Terms at any time. We will notify you of material changes via email or in-app notification at least 30 days before such changes take effect.

Submitting a plugin for release, or keeping a Publishing Plan or a released title active, after the effective date of a revised version constitutes your acceptance of it. If you do not agree to the revised version, you must stop submitting plugins for release and cancel your Publishing Plan before that date; Section 8 describes what happens to your catalog and your customers if you do.

These Publisher Terms are governed by, and construed and interpreted in accordance with, the laws of the State of Israel, without regard to its conflict of law principles or rules, and any dispute arising out of or in connection with them is subject to the exclusive jurisdiction of the competent courts located in Tel Aviv-Jaffa, Israel.

The Governing Law & Disputes section of the Terms of Service applies here in full, including the obligation to attempt informal resolution before commencing formal proceedings and the one-year limitation on bringing a claim.

If you have any questions about these Publisher Terms, please contact us at:

support@pookaudio.com

Pook Audio (a trading name of Ayal Yishay)
Israel