Terms of Service

1. Who we are and this agreement

The Emporium Forge is a service of SICKMEYER GROUP, LLC, located in Worthington, Minnesota, United States (“Company,” “we,” “us,” or “our”). These Terms of Service (“Terms”) govern access to emporiumforge.com, Cinema Forge, other Forges offered through the platform, and related subscription services (collectively, the “Service”).

By affirmatively accepting these Terms when creating an account or subscribing, you agree to them. If you do not agree, do not subscribe to or use account-based features of the Service. Acceptance of these Terms does not replace any separate consent required for recurring billing or another purpose under applicable law.

Our Privacy Policy explains how we handle personal information. References to the Privacy Policy do not waive your privacy rights or constitute consent to optional data uses.

2. Eligibility and account security

You must be at least 18 years old and legally capable of entering into this agreement where you live. The Service is not offered to minors. You must provide accurate account information and keep your contact email current.

Each subscription is for one individual user. You may access your account on multiple devices that you own or are authorized to use, subject to the Service's authentication and subscription checks. Multiple devices do not permit multiple people to share one subscription. Each person using the Service needs their own subscription unless we expressly offer a different arrangement.

Keep your account, email access, and sign-in links secure. Do not share or sell access. Promptly notify us if you suspect unauthorized use. You are responsible for your authorized activity and for taking reasonable steps to secure your account; this does not make you responsible for security failures attributable to us.

Trusted devices

You may choose to designate a device as “trusted.” When you do, we store a record of that device and place a cookie on it so that, for up to 30 days after you last use it, you can sign in by entering your email address without clicking an emailed link. The 30-day period renews each time you sign in on, or actively use the Service from, that device.

Your responsibilities. Trust only devices that you own or are authorized to use and that no one else uses. You are responsible for all activity that occurs through a device you have trusted until you remove it. If a trusted device is lost, stolen, shared, or compromised, remove it immediately from Settings → Devices (or use “Forget all devices”) and notify us. Trusting a device is optional; you can sign in with an emailed link instead at any time.

Our rights. Trusted-device sign-in is a convenience feature. We may modify, limit, or discontinue it at any time, require email verification at any time (including when we detect unusual activity), exclude certain account types, and revoke any trusted device without notice for security reasons. We do not guarantee that the feature will be available or uninterrupted.

Limitation. To the maximum extent permitted by law, we are not responsible for unauthorized access that results from your failure to comply with this section, including trusting a shared or unsecured device or failing to remove a device you no longer control. Nothing in this section limits any liability that cannot be limited by law, or our responsibility for security failures attributable to us.

If you use the Service for an employer or client, you must have authority to submit their materials and perform that work. Doing work for a business does not convert an individual subscription into a team license.

3. What the Service provides

The Emporium Forge provides browser-based tools for developing storytelling and production prompts, plans, and related creative materials. Cinema Forge is one of those tools. Our tools are referred to as “Forges.”

The Service runs through the website. A subscription does not include a downloadable or perpetual software license. You can take the prompts and other outputs you create to an AI service of your choosing, subject to that service's terms and any applicable rights in the material.

Your subscription covers the features identified in the plan you purchase. It does not automatically include third-party AI subscriptions, model credits, rendering, image/video generation, or future separately priced products. Internet access and a compatible browser are your responsibility. We will disclose any additional charge before you agree to incur it.

4. Subscription, trial, and automatic renewal

The current standard plan costs US$10 per month after a seven-day free trial. A valid payment method is required. Unless you cancel before the trial ends, your payment method will be charged when the trial ends and monthly thereafter until cancellation takes effect. Applicable taxes, if any, will be disclosed at checkout and included in displayed totals where required by law.

The free trial is available once per customer. If you cancel, or your subscription ends or lapses, and you later resubscribe, the new subscription begins with an immediate charge and does not include another trial. We may decline a trial where we reasonably believe it is being used repeatedly, for example through multiple accounts, and checkout will state whether a trial applies before you pay.

The trial's end date and the applicable recurring charge will be shown during signup or in your subscription confirmation. The monthly subscription renews for successive monthly billing periods unless canceled. Your billing portal and invoices show the relevant billing dates. Renewal occurs on a monthly schedule, not necessarily every 30 days.

By expressly authorizing recurring billing at signup, you authorize us, through Stripe, to collect the disclosed recurring charges and applicable taxes from your selected payment method. We will provide a retainable confirmation containing the subscription and cancellation information. Any trial or renewal reminders required by applicable law will also be provided.

You may cancel during the trial to prevent conversion to a paid subscription. If you cancel before the trial ends, no subscription charge is due for that trial, and trial access continues until its scheduled expiration unless you request earlier account deletion or access is lawfully suspended under Section 13.

5. Stripe and payment processing

We use Stripe to process transactions and provide subscription billing tools. Payment credentials are submitted through Stripe's payment interface. We do not store full payment-card numbers, card security codes, or bank-account payment credentials on our systems.

Stripe processes payment information under its applicable terms and Privacy Policy. Payment processing may involve banks, card networks, and other payment providers. Limited account, subscription, or transaction information may be made available to us to administer the Service, verify entitlement, respond to billing questions, and satisfy recordkeeping obligations. Our Privacy Policy describes the information we actually retain.

You must be authorized to use your selected payment method. You are responsible for bank or currency-conversion charges imposed by your payment provider. Unless checkout expressly states otherwise, charges are denominated in US dollars.

If a payment fails, Stripe may retry an authorized charge. We may notify you and suspend paid access if payment remains outstanding. As a courtesy, we currently continue access for up to five (5) days after the first failed payment while retries are attempted; this grace period is not a promise of continued service, may be changed or ended at any time, and does not waive any amount owed. Access resumes automatically once payment succeeds. You can still request billing help and cancel future renewals. We do not charge a new subscription period after a valid cancellation becomes effective, although a previously incurred lawful balance may remain due.

Contact us about billing errors or unauthorized charges. Nothing in these Terms restricts lawful rights to dispute a charge with your payment provider or seek a remedy from a regulator.

6. Cancellation and expiration of access

You may cancel automatic renewal at any time through the Stripe billing portal linked from the Service's billing or subscription-management area. If the portal is unavailable or inaccessible to you, contact us using Section 21. We also honor other cancellation methods required by applicable law.

For a paid subscription, cancellation stops future renewals and access continues through the end of the current paid billing period. At that time, access to subscription features expires unless you resubscribe. Cancellation does not normally end paid access immediately. Trial cancellation is addressed in Section 4.

Simply signing out, closing your browser, or ceasing to use the Service does not cancel a subscription. Keep the cancellation confirmation for your records. Billing and cancellation assistance remain available even when subscription features are unavailable.

Cancellation and account deletion are different actions. Section 12 explains account and privacy requests. Your rights to use lawfully obtained outputs under Section 9 survive subscription expiration.

7. Refund policy and mandatory consumer rights

Subscription charges are nonrefundable for ordinary cancellation, unused time, non-use, or a change of mind, except where a refund is required by applicable law or expressly provided in these Terms. We do not ordinarily issue partial refunds or credits when you cancel during a paid billing period, because access continues through that period.

This policy does not exclude remedies for billing errors, unauthorized charges, failure to provide legally required service, or any other matter for which applicable law requires a refund, price reduction, withdrawal right, or other remedy. The discontinuation provision in Section 13 also applies.

If mandatory consumer law gives you a cooling-off or withdrawal period, that right takes priority over our ordinary no-refund policy. For example, eligible EU/EEA consumers generally have 14 days after concluding an online service contract to withdraw, subject to applicable rules. A seven-day free trial does not itself eliminate that right. Contact us with an unequivocal withdrawal request or use any withdrawal function we provide. Where applicable law permits a proportionate charge for service supplied at your express request during a withdrawal period, we will charge it only if the required disclosures and consents were obtained. Mere use or acceptance of these Terms does not automatically waive statutory withdrawal rights.

8. Changes to price, plans, and these Terms

We may update the Service and offer different plans in the future. We will not retroactively increase the price of a billing period you have already paid for.

For a price increase or other material adverse subscription change, we will provide clear notice by email at least 30 days before it applies to you, or longer if applicable law requires. The notice will describe the change, effective date, and how to cancel. A price increase applies no earlier than a renewal after the notice period. We will obtain additional consent where required by law. You may cancel before the change takes effect.

We may also revise these Terms. Material changes will be notified in advance with an opportunity to stop using the Service and cancel renewal. If a legal or urgent security requirement prevents advance notice, we will notify you as soon as reasonably possible and preserve any required remedies. Changes do not retroactively alter an accrued claim. Continued use after an effective date constitutes acceptance only to the extent permitted by law; express agreement will be sought where required.

9. Your materials and generated outputs

“Inputs” are ideas, text, instructions, and other materials you submit to the Service. “Outputs” are prompts, plans, and other creative materials generated for you through ordinary use of the Service.

You retain any rights you hold in your Inputs. You must have permission to submit them and use them as intended. Do not submit third-party confidential information or personal information without appropriate authority.

As between you and the Company, you retain your rights in your original creative contributions. To the extent we hold assignable rights in Outputs created for you, we assign those rights to you, excluding our preexisting platform materials and third-party materials. To the extent our preexisting material is incorporated into an Output, we grant you a nonexclusive, worldwide, royalty-free, continuing license to use, edit, reproduce, distribute, and commercially exploit that material as part of the Output and your resulting creative work.

You may use lawful Outputs for personal projects, commercial projects, and client work, including with external AI tools. These permissions continue after your subscription ends. You may share or deliver Outputs without sharing your account. They do not authorize extraction or redistribution of our underlying software or proprietary template libraries as a competing platform.

These contractual permissions do not guarantee that every Output is copyrightable, unique, exclusively yours, or free from third-party rights. Other users may receive similar material. You are responsible for reviewing Outputs and obtaining any needed rights in music, footage, trademarks, likenesses, characters, or other third-party material used in your finished work.

You grant us a limited, nonexclusive permission to process your Inputs and Outputs only as needed to deliver your requested features, maintain and secure the Service, and respond to your support requests. This is not a transfer of ownership or permission to publish your projects in our advertising. Processing and retention of personal information are governed by the Privacy Policy and applicable law.

10. Our intellectual property and permitted access

The Company and its licensors retain rights in the Service's software, design, branding, documentation, proprietary templates, and other platform materials, excluding rights granted to you in Section 9. No trademark ownership or right to imply our endorsement is granted.

While your trial or paid subscription is active and you comply with these Terms, you receive a limited, nonexclusive, nontransferable right to access and use the included features for your own work. This right ends when access expires or is lawfully terminated. It does not give you ownership of the platform or a right to host, license, or resell it.

11. Acceptable use

You must not use the Service to:

• Violate applicable law or another person's intellectual-property, privacy, publicity, or other legal rights.
• Create or facilitate fraud, threats, exploitation, child sexual abuse material, nonconsensual intimate imagery, or harmful deceptive impersonation.
• Access another person's account, share subscription access, or bypass authentication, payment, or security controls.
• Introduce malicious code, disrupt the Service, or conduct unauthorized vulnerability exploitation.
• Use automated scraping or bulk extraction that circumvents access controls, extracts protected platform materials, or materially interferes with the Service.
• Copy, resell, or redistribute the underlying platform or proprietary template libraries without permission; reverse-engineer protected software except to the extent applicable law permits despite this restriction.
• Misrepresent your affiliation with the Company or mislead others about the source, reliability, or nature of your work.

These restrictions do not prohibit lawful creative work, ordinary use and distribution of your Outputs, legally protected interoperability activities, good-faith reporting to authorities, or other rights that cannot lawfully be restricted.

12. Privacy, account deletion, and your copies

We do not sell your personal information to third parties. We use service providers, including Stripe for billing and Resend for account emails, to perform necessary functions. Providing information to a service provider for an authorized purpose is distinct from selling personal information. Our Privacy Policy describes relevant processing, disclosures, and user rights; Stripe separately controls certain information it processes under its own policy.

Canceling a subscription through Stripe stops renewal according to Section 6. It does not, by itself, establish that all Emporium Forge account records or personal information have been deleted.

To request account closure or exercise privacy rights, contact us using Section 21. We may reasonably verify your identity. We will explain the effect on remaining access and process the request under applicable law. If you request account closure while a subscription is active, we will also address future renewal; you will not be required to retain an unwanted account merely to submit a privacy request.

Deletion may be subject to lawful retention of limited information for accounting, tax, fraud prevention, security, dispute resolution, or other legal obligations. It is not a promise that Stripe or another independently responsible provider immediately deletes all of its records. Retention practices and request procedures belong in our Privacy Policy.

Keep your own copies of important Outputs. Do not rely on indefinite platform storage or continued access to saved material after expiration or deletion. This does not limit any mandatory access, portability, retrieval, or other data rights.

13. Suspension, termination, and service availability

We may suspend or terminate access for a material breach of these Terms, unlawful use, nonpayment, or a credible security risk. Where reasonably possible, we will explain the reason and give you an opportunity to resolve a remediable issue. Immediate action may be necessary to protect users, comply with law, or prevent material harm. You may contact us to ask for review of an account restriction.

We aim to maintain reliable service, but maintenance, outages, and technical problems can occur. No specific uptime or support-response guarantee applies unless separately agreed in writing. We may improve or modify features, subject to our obligations for paid service and material-change notice.

If we permanently discontinue the Service, or terminate your paid access for reasons unrelated to your breach, we will provide the remaining prepaid service or refund the portion of prepaid fees corresponding to the service not provided. Mandatory remedies for other failures remain available. We will stop future renewal charges when the subscription ends.

Termination does not extinguish accrued obligations, surviving Output permissions, ownership provisions, or other provisions that by their nature should survive. It does not authorize us to retain personal information indefinitely.

14. External AI services and output limitations

You choose whether and where to submit your Outputs to external AI services. Those services operate under their own terms, pricing, privacy practices, content restrictions, and technical limitations. Your Emporium Forge subscription does not pay their charges or guarantee approval, compatibility, or particular results.

Prompts and creative plans may be incomplete, inaccurate, repetitive, inconsistent, or unsuitable for your intended purpose. Review them before relying on or publishing them. We do not guarantee creative quality, factual accuracy, infringement clearance, monetization eligibility, commercial success, a particular number of AI generations, or any specific cost savings. Savings illustrations are estimates rather than promises about your results.

You are responsible for final editorial decisions and compliance with the rules applicable to your distribution platforms, clients, and external AI services. The Service is a creative tool, not legal or other regulated professional advice.

15. Warranties and consumer protections

To the fullest extent permitted by applicable law, the Service and Outputs are provided “as is” and “as available,” and we disclaim implied warranties of merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose, and noninfringement. We do not warrant uninterrupted, error-free operation or particular external AI results.

These disclaimers do not exclude express commitments in these Terms, mandatory duties to provide services with reasonable care and skill or in conformity with the contract, or warranties and remedies that applicable law does not allow us to exclude. If you are a consumer, you retain all nonwaivable consumer rights.

16. Limitation of liability

To the extent applicable law permits, the Company is not liable for indirect, consequential, special, exemplary, or punitive damages, including consequential lost profits or lost business opportunities, arising from the Service.

Subject to the exceptions below, the Company's total liability for claims arising out of or relating to the Service is limited to the greater of US$100 or the total fees you paid us for the Service during the 12 months before the event giving rise to the claim.

These exclusions and limits do not apply to fraud, willful misconduct, gross negligence, death or personal injury caused by negligence, or any liability that applicable law prohibits us from excluding or limiting. They do not reduce mandatory refunds or other nonwaivable statutory remedies. For consumers, they apply only to the extent fair and enforceable under applicable consumer law.

17. Third-party claims arising from business use

If you use the Service in a business or professional capacity, and to the extent permitted by law, you agree to reimburse the Company for reasonable damages, costs, and legal fees finally awarded or agreed in a settlement you approve, arising from a third-party claim caused by your unlawful use, your material breach of these Terms, or Inputs you submit without necessary rights.

This obligation applies only to the extent the claim results from your conduct. It does not cover the Company's own breach, negligence, or misconduct, or an infringement claim attributable solely to materials we supplied. We will promptly notify you, permit reasonable participation in the defense, and not agree to a settlement imposing obligations on you without your consent. This section does not apply to your purely personal use as a consumer.

18. International use

International customers may subscribe where we can lawfully provide the Service and accept payment. You must comply with applicable export-control and sanctions laws. We may restrict access where supplying the Service would violate law.

Your location may give you mandatory rights regarding subscriptions, digital services, privacy, refunds, or dispute resolution. Nothing in these Terms removes those rights. References to US dollars, Minnesota law, or US courts do not themselves displace protections that mandatorily apply in your country of residence.

19. Governing law and disputes

Subject to mandatory law, these Terms are governed by Minnesota law, without applying conflict-of-law rules that would require another jurisdiction's law. We encourage you to contact us first so we can try to resolve a concern. Informal discussion is not a mandatory waiting period and does not prevent you from seeking urgent relief, contacting a regulator, or filing within an applicable deadline.

Where legally enforceable, proceedings may be brought in the state courts located in Nobles County, Minnesota, or the United States District Court for the District of Minnesota, as appropriate. If mandatory consumer law entitles you to bring proceedings in your home jurisdiction or requires us to bring claims there, those rights control. Consumers retain any mandatory protections of their country of habitual residence.

These Terms do not require binding arbitration and do not include a waiver of class-action rights.

20. General provisions

These Terms and any expressly agreed subscription order describe our agreement concerning the Service. Specific plan terms expressly accepted at checkout control over a conflicting general description of that plan, subject always to mandatory law. The Privacy Policy addresses information practices separately; these Terms do not override legal privacy rights.

If a provision is unenforceable, the remaining provisions continue to apply to the extent legally possible. Failure to enforce a provision once does not waive the right to enforce it later. You may not transfer your subscription to another person without our agreement. We may transfer this agreement as part of a genuine business reorganization or sale only if doing so does not reduce your contractual or mandatory rights, and we will provide any required notice.

We may send account, billing, security, and contractual notices to your registered email or through the Service as appropriate; material subscription notices will be provided in a retainable form. Optional marketing communications and legally required electronic-consent procedures are handled separately.

21. Contact

SICKMEYER GROUP, LLC
Operator of The Emporium Forge
Worthington, MN, United States
Support, legal, billing, and privacy requests: support@emporiumforge.com
Website: https://emporiumforge.com

For subscription cancellation, use the linked Stripe billing portal or contact us if you need assistance. For a privacy or account-deletion request, clearly identify the account email and the action you are requesting; do not send payment credentials or unnecessary identity documents.