Terms

Article 1 - Purpose and scope

These Terms of Use govern the use of the BrickNote application for macOS and of the bricknote.ai website, published by APITHINGS, a French SARL (société à responsabilité limitée) registered under number 890 251 184 (RCS Lyon 890 251 184), registered office 4 rue de la République, 69001 Lyon, France.

BrickNote is professional software. It is intended for professionals of architecture, property development and marketing acting in the course of their business, and is not offered to consumers.

BrickNote is currently distributed in early access (article 3): APITHINGS grants access person by person, with no order and no signed contract. Installing or using an early-access version constitutes acceptance of these Terms in the version published on that date. Where a purchase order, licence agreement or convention is signed between APITHINGS and the user, that document prevails over these Terms for everything it covers, and these Terms apply to the rest.

Article 2 - Description of the service

BrickNote is an application installed on the user’s own Mac that makes short films from the files of an architecture or property project, with the artificial-intelligence models of providers the user connects. It provides:

• Reading of a project folder as it exists on the Mac (renders, plans, brochures, descriptive notices, massing captures, logos), and of the facts its documents state, each with its page
• Films planned from recipes (project film, competition film, social teaser, four weathers, day to night): pictures brought to life, new looks, transitions, lines, voices, music, subtitles and an end card
• Export in 16:9, 9:16 and 1:1, in several languages, with subtitle files
• Two modes per film: Creative, with no check; Faithful, in which the generated pictures and the lines are checked against their sources and every difference is flagged
• An optional control note listing each shot’s source, the checks, the decisions, the approval and each file’s checksum
• A disclosure of the use of artificial intelligence, written into the metadata of every exported file

Article 3 - Early access and licence

APITHINGS grants the user a right to use BrickNote that is personal, non-exclusive, non-transferable and non-sublicensable, limited to the internal needs of the user’s professional activity. The licence transfers no intellectual property rights.

Early access

BrickNote is currently distributed in early access, to the people APITHINGS invites. The terms of that access (its duration, any price) are those APITHINGS communicates when it grants it; failing any, access is free of charge and without commitment. During early access:

• The application is provided “as is”, experimentally, without warranty of any kind (article 11). It does not yet have the operational history of established software.
• No support is guaranteed. Messages are read, with no promised response time.
• The model providers are yours: early access includes no artificial-intelligence model supplied by APITHINGS, and APITHINGS bears no cost of the calls made to them (article 4).
• BrickNote is intended to become paid software: early access will end. Its end is announced at least two months in advance to the people who have access. An installed version does not stop working as a result; only later versions may be subject to a licence. APITHINGS may otherwise change or restrict the features of early access at any time.

Free use never converts automatically into a paid licence: no payment method is requested by APITHINGS, and any move to a paid licence requires your new written agreement.

The user shall not rent, lend, resell or make the software available to third parties, nor modify, decompile or reverse-engineer it, save for the rights granted by article L. 122-6-1 of the French Intellectual Property Code. The bricknote.ai website is freely accessible.

Article 4 - Prerequisites and third-party services

The user is responsible for a compatible Mac, an internet connection and their cost. BrickNote’s artificial intelligence relies on the providers the user chooses, configures and pays directly — OpenRouter, Runware, BytePlus, ElevenLabs. APITHINGS is not a party to the contracts concluded with them, receives no remuneration from them, and guarantees neither their availability, nor their terms, nor where they process data — which the user is to verify with them.

Each provider’s own terms govern what may be done with what its models make, including commercial use (for example, some providers reserve commercial use to paid plans). The terms shown in the application and in the control note are a summary of the providers’ pages at the date they were read, not legal advice: the user reads them before publishing.

The estimates the application shows before a paid call, and the spending limits it applies per film and per month, are aids computed from the providers’ published prices and from the costs they report. The amount due is the one each provider bills to the user; APITHINGS is not liable for the charges billed by providers.

Article 5 - No account

Using BrickNote requires no BrickNote account: APITHINGS asks for no email address and no password. The keys of the user’s provider accounts are the user’s own, kept encrypted on their Mac, under their responsibility.

Article 6 - User obligations

The user undertakes to:

• Use the application in accordance with its purpose and with the law
• Hold the rights needed to use the files they give BrickNote and to have them transformed — a render belongs to its author, a photograph to its photographer, a logo to its owner — and to show the people who appear in them
• Check every film before publishing it, its pictures and its words, and not present AI-generated pictures or statements in a way that misleads about a project — in particular in advertising for a property, where the rules against misleading commercial practices apply
• Keep the disclosure of the use of AI that BrickNote writes into each file, and label a published film wherever the law or the platform requires it
• Check the rules of a competition (anonymity, formats, use of AI) before submitting a film made with BrickNote
• Comply, as the controller of their projects’ data, with the GDPR towards the people appearing in them
• Keep their Mac secure (individual session, screen lock, disk encryption) and back up their folders
• Not attempt to circumvent the application’s protections

Article 7 - The user’s files and films

Project folders, and the films, subtitles and notes made from them, stay on the user’s Mac. APITHINGS has no access to them, holds no copy of them, and acquires no rights over them — not to reuse them, not to show them, not to train a model. APITHINGS claims no rights over the films the user makes; the rights the user holds in them depend on the rights in the source files and on each model provider’s terms (article 4).

These Terms change nothing about the ownership of the rights in the files of a project folder: the user is responsible for the permissions their use requires.

If the user voluntarily sends files to APITHINGS to obtain help, they are used only to handle that request, disclosed to no one, and deleted when the request is closed.

For more information, see our Privacy Policy.

Article 8 - Artificial intelligence

The application uses artificial-intelligence models to read documents, plan films, generate pictures, clips and voices, translate and check. The user is informed that they are using an AI system, and every file exported carries, in its metadata, a disclosure of the use of AI that cannot be turned off; the visible mention on the end card is on by default, and the label on each shot made by AI is on by default in Faithful mode and off in Creative mode. That disclosure helps the user meet transparency obligations such as those of article 50 of Regulation (EU) 2024/1689 (the AI Act); whether and how to label a published film remains the user’s responsibility.

AI results may be wrong, may change what a picture shows — a level, a roofline, an opening — or add to it — a person, a car, a sign. The checks of the Faithful mode are themselves performed by AI models: they may miss a difference or flag one that does not exist. They flag and never block; the decision is the user’s. Neither the checks nor the control note certify anything: BrickNote is a tool; the user decides what they publish, and BrickNote gives no legal guarantee.

The control note lists each file’s SHA-256 checksum. That checksum lets anyone verify a file has not been altered; it is neither an electronic signature nor a certified timestamp, and proves neither the date nor the author.

Article 9 - Intellectual property

The BrickNote application, its interface, code, documentation and graphic elements are and remain the exclusive property of APITHINGS. Any unauthorised reproduction, modification or distribution is prohibited.

The names, trade marks and logos “BrickNote” and “APITHINGS” remain the property of APITHINGS; “BrickNote” is a filed trade mark. The licence grants no right over them. The user shall not use the BrickNote trade mark to designate another product or service, or in any way likely to cause confusion as to the origin of the software.

The application includes third-party components, in particular open-source libraries and the music tracks it ships with, which remain governed by their own licences; their list is provided on request. The AI models and third-party services the user relies on belong to their respective publishers.

APITHINGS may cite the user’s name or trade mark, or show a film the user made, only with their prior written agreement.

Article 10 - Versions and changes

APITHINGS may change the application’s features and provide new versions; an early-access version may be replaced by a later one. APITHINGS owes no maintenance or support obligation beyond what a signed agreement or purchase order provides.

Article 11 - Warranty and liability

During early access (article 3), the application is provided “as is”, with no warranty of conformity, availability, continuity or fitness for a particular purpose, and no obligation to fix within any given time. The paragraphs below apply in every case.

Outside early access, APITHINGS undertakes to supply an application conforming to its documentation and uses reasonable efforts to keep it working. It does not warrant that the application will be error-free, that it will meet any particular need, or that any given result will be achieved. Third-party services (model providers, website hosting) are governed by their own terms and warranties.

The user remains solely responsible for the films, pictures and texts they publish, for their accuracy, their compliance and their consequences, for the charges incurred on their provider accounts, and for backing up their Mac.

Indirect damages are excluded, in particular loss of data, loss of business, loss of opportunity, commercial or reputational harm, and third-party claims arising from them.

Save for personal injury, gross negligence and wilful misconduct, which French law does not allow to be capped, APITHINGS’ total liability, on any basis whatsoever, is limited to the greater of: the sums actually received from the user over the twelve months preceding the triggering event, or five thousand (5,000) euros. This cap is agreed in consideration of the licence price — nil where applicable — and of the division of roles set out in articles 4 to 8.

Article 12 - Confidentiality

Each party keeps confidential the other’s information it accesses in connection with the licence, for its term and three years thereafter. This does not apply to information that is public, already known, or whose disclosure is required by law or by an authority.

APITHINGS does not access the user’s folders, remotely or otherwise. Screen sharing or sending files for help happens only at the user’s request, under their control, and on the terms of article 7.

Article 13 - Personal data

For the data contained in project folders, the user is the controller: it stays on their Mac and APITHINGS does not access it, so APITHINGS does not act as a processor in that respect. If, in a particular case, APITHINGS were to process personal data on the user’s behalf — help on real files, a model account supplied by APITHINGS — a processing agreement compliant with article 28 GDPR would be concluded beforehand.

The processing for which APITHINGS is the controller is described in the Privacy Policy.

Article 14 - Term, termination and exit

A licence is granted for the agreed term. Either party may terminate for a material breach by the other not remedied within thirty days of formal notice. During early access, article 3 prevails over this one: its end is announced two months in advance, and it obliges you neither to uninstall nor to stop using the version you installed — you keep the right to use it as it stands, without new versions or support. APITHINGS can withdraw that right only for a material breach on your part.

On termination, the user stops using the application and uninstalls it. Their files stay with them: project folders and the films exported from them are files on their own Mac, readable without BrickNote — there is nothing to hand back, nothing to retrieve, and nothing that becomes inaccessible.

Article 15 - Force majeure

Neither party is liable for a failure caused by force majeure within the meaning of article 1218 of the French Civil Code, including the lasting unavailability of an indispensable third-party service.

Article 16 - Changes to these Terms

APITHINGS may change these Terms. The version applicable to a current licence is the one accepted at the order; a substantial change is notified to the user and applies only on renewal, or after one month’s notice during which the user may terminate at no cost if they do not accept it. For the website and for early access, the version in force is the one published.

Article 17 - Assignment

The user consents in advance to the assignment of this contract by APITHINGS to a company taking over the operation of BrickNote, in particular by way of sale or contribution, provided that it assumes all contractual obligations in full. The assignment, recorded in writing, becomes enforceable against the user upon written notice of the deed specifying the assignee, its contact details and the effective date. The user expressly agrees to release APITHINGS for the future; obligations and liabilities arising before the effective date remain with APITHINGS. The assignment changes neither the price, nor the term, nor the agreed rights of use. Subject to mandatory rules, the user may not assign the contract without APITHINGS’s written consent.

Article 18 - Governing law and jurisdiction

These Terms are governed by French law. They are written in French and in English; in case of discrepancy, the French version prevails. The parties will seek an amicable solution; failing that, and only so far as article 48 of the French Code of Civil Procedure allows — that is, between commerçants — any dispute falls to the exclusive jurisdiction of the courts of Lyon, France, including where there are several defendants or a third-party claim. Where that condition is not met, in particular if the user practises in a non-commercial form, the ordinary rules of jurisdiction apply.

Article 19 - Contact

For any question about these Terms, write to contact@bricknote.ai, or use our early-access page.