The terms you use PhotoWrite under

1. Who these terms are with

PhotoWrite is operated by an independent developer based in Japan (“we”). By creating an account or using the plug-in you agree to these terms. If you do not, do not use the service. You can reach us at info@photowrite.co; how we handle your information is set out in our privacy notice.

2. The service changes over time

PhotoWrite is developed continuously. Features may change or be withdrawn, the service may be unavailable, and the third-party services it depends on can change or fail. We will give you reasonable notice before withdrawing a feature you rely on, or before ending access to an account in good standing.

3. Your account and your key

Your account can be used two ways, and both spend the same balance. In the browser you are signed in; in the Lightroom plug-in an API key stands in for that, because Lightroom cannot hold a sign-in.

That key is yours alone. Keep it private; anyone holding it can use your allowance. You can revoke and replace it at any time from your account page, and you should if you think it has been exposed. You are responsible for activity under your key.

Do not share an account between people, and do not resell access.

4. What PhotoWrite writes, and why you must read it

This is the clause that matters most, because of what the product does.

PhotoWrite writes into IPTC and XMP metadata — fields that travel with your files when you export them, and which other software will treat as statements of fact. The place names come from map data and from a language model reading a rendered map; the titles, captions and descriptions are written by that model from the image itself.

• It can be wrong, and it will not always be obviously wrong. A confident, fluent, incorrect caption reads exactly like a correct one.
• It leaves fields blank rather than guessing where its own confidence is low — but a filled field is not a guarantee.
• You are responsible for what you publish. Review before exporting anything that matters, particularly for commercial or archival use.
• Nothing is written over your own work. The plug-in leaves a field you have filled in alone unless you tick Replace, and every run it makes can be undone from the plug-in. The browser client never alters the file you gave it at all: a JPEG is answered with a copy, and a raw with an .xmp sidecar beside it.

5. Your photographs remain yours

You keep every right in your images and in the text written into them. We claim no licence over your photographs beyond what is needed to process a scan you asked for, and we do not store them — see Privacy.

Place names and map data are derived from OpenStreetMap and its contributors, from GeoNames, and from national mapping agencies — the Geospatial Information Authority of Japan (国土地理院), swisstopo, IGN and Kartverket — each under its own licence. Where a licence requires attribution for data you go on to publish, that obligation passes to you. Which of those sources answered a given photograph depends on where it was taken; if you are publishing at a scale where the credit line matters, write to us and we will tell you what applies to your set.

6. Acceptable use

Do not use PhotoWrite to process images you have no right to, to identify individuals, to attempt to extract or resell the underlying map or model data, or in a way that breaches the terms of the services named in our privacy page. Do not attempt to circumvent quotas or authentication.

Automated bulk use beyond ordinary cataloguing may be rate-limited or refused.

7. Payment

Scans are bought in advance as credits, and an account starts with a number of them included. We will give you clear notice, and the choice to stop, before we change what anything costs. Scanning uses paid third-party services on our account; fair-use limits may apply and we will tell you if yours is approached.

Your account holds a balance of scans. One photograph spends one, whether or not the answer turns out to be useful, because the cost to us is incurred the moment the image is read. A photograph we refuse before reading it — one with no coordinate — costs nothing, unless you have asked us to read those too, which is a setting you turn on per run and which is off until you do. When the balance reaches zero we tell you, and further scans are refused until it is topped up — refused plainly, so a run stops rather than quietly writing less. Credits do not expire.

Scans are bought in packs, at the prices shown on the pricing page, in US dollars. Payment is taken on our payment processor’s own checkout page rather than on ours, so your card details never reach us; the total you are shown there, including any tax that applies, is what you pay. The scans are added to your balance as soon as that payment is confirmed.

Unspent scans can be refunded in full within 30 days of the purchase that put them there — write to info@photowrite.co and say which purchase. Scans already spent are not refundable, because the photograph was read and the services that read it were paid for. If a run goes wrong through a fault of ours, tell us and we will put those scans back; that is a correction rather than a refund, and there is no time limit on it. If you are a consumer in the United Kingdom or the European Economic Area you normally have 14 days to withdraw from a distance purchase: by buying scans you ask us to supply them immediately and accept that the right to withdraw no longer applies to any you have spent. The 30 days above are wider than that right and stand whatever it says.

8. Suspension and ending your account

You may stop using PhotoWrite at any time and ask us to close your account. We may suspend or end access where these terms are breached or where use threatens the service. Closing your account revokes your key immediately; anything already written into your catalogue is unaffected and stays yours, and any unspent balance is dealt with under section 7.

9. What we do not promise

PhotoWrite is provided as it is. We do not warrant that it will be uninterrupted, that any particular photograph will be identified, or that what it writes will be accurate. It depends on third-party services that can change or fail.

To the extent the law allows, we are not liable for indirect or consequential loss, for lost work, or for any consequence of relying on generated text without reviewing it. Where liability cannot be excluded, it is limited to the amount you paid us in the twelve months before the claim. Nothing here limits liability for death, personal injury, or fraud.

10. Changes and governing law

We may revise these terms; material changes will be dated here, and continuing to use the service means accepting them. These terms are governed by the law of Japan, and the Tokyo District Court has exclusive jurisdiction as the court of first instance. If you are a consumer resident elsewhere, this does not deprive you of any protection given by the mandatory law of the country you live in.