Terms of Service

Framis is an automated copyright-recovery service for photographers. We monitor the open web for unauthorised use of images you upload to your private library, draft retroactive-licence outreach to parties using those images without permission, route their replies through AI classification, and where they accept the licence offer we generate a Stripe Checkout session, issue a Licence Agreement PDF on payment, and route 60% of the recovery directly to your Stripe Connect account. Framis retains the remaining 40% as service commission.

You must be at least 18 years old, have legal capacity to enter contracts, and own the copyright in (or have an exclusive licence covering) any image you upload. You are responsible for keeping your account credentials secure and for all activity under your account.

By uploading an image you warrant that:

• You own the copyright or hold an exclusive licence with the right to enforce against third parties.
• You have the necessary releases for any identifiable persons depicted, including for the purposes of issuing licences for future commercial or editorial use.
• The image is not encumbered by exclusive licences to other parties that would conflict with the licences Framis issues on your behalf.
• You will indemnify Framis against any third-party claim arising from breach of the warranties above.

Framis takes 40% of the gross recovery amount as service commission. The remaining 60% is the photographer’s share. Stripe processing fees come out of Framis’s commission; your 60% share is the gross amount agreed with the licensee regardless of card-processing costs.

Recoveries are routed via Stripe Connect destination charges: the licensee pays Framis as merchant of record, and at the moment of charge Stripe automatically transfers your share to your connected Stripe Express account. Framis never custodies your money.

You must complete Stripe Connect Express onboarding before payouts can be made. We will not approve outreach for accounts that have not completed onboarding.

Photographer payouts through Framis are processed by Stripe, Inc. (US) and/or Stripe Payments UK Ltd (UK), as applicable to your account location. Stripe is an independent licensed payment processor. When you connect a Stripe Express account, you enter into a direct agreement with Stripe (stripe.com/legal/connect-account). Framis is not a payment institution, money services business, or electronic money institution. Framis does not hold your bank account details or identity documents — these are held directly by Stripe.

Chargebacks and transfer reversals. If a licensee initiates a chargeback or payment dispute after a licence fee has been collected, Stripe may reverse the transfer of your share (the 60%) from your connected account. In such cases Framis will notify you promptly, provide evidence we hold to contest the chargeback, and work with you in good faith to resolve the dispute. Framis is not liable for losses arising from chargebacks that occur in good faith where we have complied with our dispute-response obligations to Stripe.

Payout timing.Stripe Express payouts are subject to Stripe’s standard payout schedule (typically 2 business days after charge for established accounts, up to 7 days for new accounts). Framis has no control over Stripe’s payout timing. During the pilot phase (currently defined as fewer than 10 connected photographers), Framis reserves the right to apply an additional hold of up to 30 days on payouts where we have reasonable grounds to suspect the recovery may be disputed. Adam Kelbie (Director, KLB Solutions FZCO) must authorise any such hold. Any hold will be communicated to the photographer in writing within 24 hours of application.

Outreach is gated. We will not send any email to a third party without your explicit approval of (a) the matched infringement and (b) the AI-drafted licence offer. You may decline at any time. You may also withdraw approval before sending; once sent, we cannot recall the email but you may instruct us to stop further follow-up.

By approving Framis to pursue recovery on a match, you acknowledge that Framis introduced the opportunity of recovery to you. You agree that:

• (a) Any recovery of a licence fee or settlement payment from the party identified in that match, for that specific image use, within 24 months of the Approval Date — whether effected by you directly, through a third-party IP firm, through a collecting society, or through any other channel — is subject to Framis’s commission at the rate set out in §4.
• (b) You will not take any action designed to circumvent Framis’s commission, including framing a payment as unrelated to the identified image use.
• (c) If you receive an unsolicited payment that you believe in good faith is unrelated to the Framis-introduced match, you will notify legal@framis.app within 14 days of receipt and provide sufficient information for Framis to assess whether its commission applies.

This clause survives termination of your account.

Each successful recovery results in a Licence Agreement PDF generated by Framis on your behalf and issued under your name as Licensor. The PDF is delivered to the licensee with the standard Framis terms (current version v1.0). You authorise Framis to issue these licences on your behalf for the duration of your active account.

Each licence is recorded in the Framis registry at framis.app/licenses/[id] and is publicly verifiable to support the licensee’s legal use.

You set your own per-tier rate card on /photographer/settings/pricing. Framis suggests price bands per usage tier but the final rate quoted to a licensee is yours. Framis may from time to time recommend pricing changes but will not change your rates without your action.

When a recipient does not respond to the initial licence offer, Framis sends a graduated sequence of follow-up emails on behalf of the photographer (where the photographer has enabled Recovery Tactics in their account settings). Each stage may include a time-limited settlement discount applied to the original quoted licence price:

• Stage 1 (day +7): Full price, soft nudge. No discount.
• Stage 2 (day +14): Full price, warmer tone. No discount.
• Stage 3 (day +21): Up to 10% discount off the original quoted price, offered as a quick-resolution incentive. Valid for approximately 7 days.
• Stage 4 (day +28): Up to 30% discount off the original quoted price, with a firm 7-day deadline. After this deadline, the discounted offer is withdrawn.
• Stage 5 (day +35):Up to 40% discount off the original quoted price as a final settlement offer. At this stage, where the photographer has authorised it, Framis simultaneously files a takedown notice with the infringing site’s hosting provider (see §8). Both the settlement offer and the notice are sent on the same day.

The exact discount percentages applied in any given case may be lower than the maximums above, subject to the photographer’s own configured cap in their Recovery Tactics settings. All discount offers are shown transparently in the outreach email — both the original quoted price and the discounted settlement figure are stated explicitly. Framis will not claim a discount is unavailable and then offer one — if a ladder is active, recipients can see precisely where they stand at each stage.

The discount window closes permanently after Stage 5. Any resolution after that point is handled through the photographer’s chosen route and Framis’s commission is calculated on the amount actually recovered.

If a recipient disputes the recovery or sends a takedown notice rather than accepting the licence, the case is held for human review and we will consult you before any further action. Framis does not initiate legal proceedings on your behalf without your explicit instruction; we are an automation and recovery service, not a law firm.

Where Framis files a takedown notice on your behalf, it does so under the applicable statutory regime for the host’s jurisdiction: the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (17 U.S.C. §512) for US-hosted content; the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988 (§97A) and Online Safety Act 2023 for UK-hosted content; the DSA (EU 2022/2065) notice-and-action procedure for EU-hosted content. You warrant that the content identified in any takedown notice we file on your behalf does constitute copyright-infringing use of your work, and you accept liability for any counter-notification or wrongful-takedown claim arising from a warrant you provided to us.

You may close your account at any time by emailing legal@framis.app. We will close the account within 14 days, retaining only the records we are legally required to keep. Framis may suspend or terminate accounts that breach these Terms, attempt to abuse the service, or are subject to verified ownership disputes.

Framis’s aggregate liability to you for any claim arising from these Terms or the Service is limited to the greater of (a) the commission we have earned from your account in the 12 months preceding the claim, or (b) £500. Nothing in these Terms limits liability for fraud, gross negligence, or any liability that cannot lawfully be limited.

These Terms are governed by the laws of the United Arab Emirates. The courts of Dubai shall have exclusive jurisdiction over any dispute, save that we may bring proceedings in any jurisdiction where you reside or have assets to enforce a judgment.

We may revise these Terms. Material changes will be communicated to active users by email at least 14 days before they take effect. Continued use of the Service after a change takes effect constitutes acceptance.

Legal & commercial enquiries: legal@framis.app. Privacy enquiries: privacy@framis.app.

Neither party shall be liable for any failure or delay in performance caused by circumstances beyond their reasonable control, including but not limited to: acts of God, government action, war, civil unrest, pandemic, internet infrastructure failure, or the acts of third-party service providers (including Stripe, Vercel, Supabase, or Cloudflare). This clause does not apply to payment obligations already due.

The processing of personal data through the Service is governed by our Privacy Policy at framis.app/legal/privacy. If you use Framis as an agency or studio processing images on behalf of your own clients, please contact legal@framis.app to discuss a Data Processing Agreement.