Terms of Use

Scope and contracting parties

These terms govern the use of the Sheeps iOS application and of this website. The contract for use of the application is concluded with the operator named in the Imprint (“the Provider”).

Purchases are concluded with Apple. Apple is the merchant of record for every subscription and every one-off purchase; the Provider is not a party to those contracts and receives no payment data.

Use requires a minimum age of sixteen years, or the age of contractual capacity in the user’s country of residence if that age is higher. Deviating or conflicting terms of the user do not apply.

Subject matter

The application generates audio stories from parameters selected by the user and makes them available for playback. The stories are produced automatically by language and speech-synthesis models; no particular content, wording or uniqueness is owed.

The application is a wellness product. It is not a medical device, provides no medical advice and is not suitable for the diagnosis, prevention, monitoring, treatment or alleviation of any illness. It must not be used while driving a vehicle or operating machinery.

Terms placed by the user on the avoid list are excluded from generated content by automated means at two stages of the process. The Provider does not warrant that this exclusion is free of error in every case.

Access

Access is bound to a secret held on the user’s device; there is no user name and no password. The user is responsible for securing the device.

Loss of the device, or deletion of the application without prior restoration, results in the irreversible loss of access to the stories stored under that account. Purchases can be restored through Apple.

Subscription

Designation: Sheeps Plus, an auto-renewing subscription.
Term and consideration: One month at €4.99, granting 30 credits per month, or one year at €39.99, granting 360 credits for the term. One credit entitles the user to 5 minutes of generated audio.
Prices: Prices are stated in the App Store in the local currency, differ between storefronts and include applicable taxes. The price displayed at the time of purchase applies.
Payment: The amount is charged to the user’s Apple Account upon confirmation of the purchase.
Renewal: The subscription renews automatically unless auto-renewal is switched off at least 24 hours before the end of the current period. The Apple Account is charged for the renewal within the 24 hours preceding the end of the current period, at the price of the plan selected.
Administration: The user administers the subscription and switches off auto-renewal after purchase in the settings of their Apple Account. The Provider cannot do so on the user’s behalf. Switching off auto-renewal prevents the next renewal; it does not shorten the period already paid for and does not affect credits already granted.

Credits and one-off purchases

A story consumes the number of credits corresponding to its length, rounded up to the next full 5 minutes.
Credit packs of 15, 40, 100 credits are one-off purchases and not subscriptions. They are charged to the Apple Account at the price displayed at the time of purchase.
Each renewal makes the allowance for the period available in full: where the balance is below the allowance it is raised to it, and where the balance is at or above the allowance nothing is added. Subscription credits therefore do not accumulate from one period to the next, and are not withdrawn during a period. Credits from one-off purchases are added in full, may take the balance above the allowance, and do not expire.
Credits are a unit of account within the application. They do not constitute a means of payment, are not transferable, cannot be exchanged for money and have no value outside the application.
Where generation fails, the credits consumed are credited back automatically.

Right of withdrawal

Consumers resident in the European Union have a statutory right to withdraw from a distance contract within fourteen days without giving reasons.

In the case of digital content supplied immediately, that right lapses once performance has begun, provided the consumer has expressly consented to performance beginning before expiry of the withdrawal period and has acknowledged that the right of withdrawal thereby lapses. That consent and acknowledgement are given at the point of purchase in the application, where the credits are made available at once.

Refunds are processed by Apple, which received the payment. Applications are made through Apple’s support channels. Defects on the Provider’s side are remedied by the Provider under clause 10.

Rights of use

The Provider grants the user a simple, non-exclusive, non-transferable and non-sublicensable right, limited to the term of the contract, to use the application on Apple-branded devices which the user owns or controls, and to listen to the stories generated for them for private, non-commercial purposes.

Any further use, in particular reproduction, distribution, public communication, making available to the public, commercial exploitation or use for the training of machine-learning models, requires the prior written consent of the Provider.

All rights in the application, its design, its voices and its artwork remain with the Provider. Reverse engineering, decompilation, circumvention of technical protection measures and automated access to the interfaces outside the application are prohibited.

Availability

The Provider endeavours to keep the service available but owes no particular level of availability. Maintenance, faults at upstream providers and events beyond the Provider’s control may lead to temporary restrictions. Content already downloaded remains playable offline.

Warranty

The statutory provisions on liability for defects apply. Defects are to be notified to the Provider using the contact details given in the Imprint.

Liability

The Provider is liable without limitation for intent and gross negligence, for injury to life, body or health, in cases of fraudulent concealment of a defect, to the extent of a guarantee assumed, and under the Product Liability Act.
In cases of slight negligence the Provider is liable only for breach of a material contractual obligation, that is an obligation the performance of which makes proper performance of the contract possible in the first place and on the observance of which the user may regularly rely, and in that case only for foreseeable damage typical of this type of contract.
Liability is otherwise excluded. The foregoing limitations apply equally to the personal liability of the Provider’s employees, representatives and vicarious agents.

Term and termination

The contract of use runs for an indefinite period and may be terminated by the user at any time by deleting the account and the application. Termination of the subscription is governed by clause 4.

The Provider may block access where the user culpably breaches these terms to a significant degree, in particular where use impairs the operation of the service for other users. The right to terminate for cause remains unaffected.

Provisions relating to Apple

This agreement is concluded between the user and the Provider only, and not with Apple. The Provider alone is responsible for the application and its content.
The right of use granted under clause 7 is limited to Apple-branded devices which the user owns or controls, and is subject to the Usage Rules of the App Store Terms of Service.
The Provider is solely responsible for maintenance and support services. Apple is under no obligation to provide any maintenance or support in respect of the application.
The Provider is solely responsible for any warranties. In the event of a failure of the application to conform to an applicable warranty, the user may notify Apple, and Apple will refund the purchase price of the application; to the maximum extent permitted by applicable law, Apple has no other warranty obligation whatsoever with respect to the application, and any other claims, losses, liabilities, damages, costs or expenses attributable to a failure to conform to a warranty are the sole responsibility of the Provider.
The Provider, and not Apple, is responsible for addressing any claims of the user or of a third party relating to the application or the user’s possession or use of it, including claims of product liability, claims that the application fails to conform to any legal or regulatory requirement, and claims arising under consumer protection, privacy or similar legislation.
In the event of a third-party claim that the application or the user’s possession or use of it infringes that party’s intellectual property rights, the Provider, and not Apple, is solely responsible for the investigation, defence, settlement and discharge of that claim.
The user represents that they are not located in a country subject to a United States Government embargo or designated by the United States Government as a “terrorist supporting” country, and that they are not listed on any United States Government list of prohibited or restricted parties.
The user must comply with any applicable third-party terms of agreement when using the application.
Apple and Apple’s subsidiaries are third-party beneficiaries of these terms and, upon the user’s acceptance of them, have the right to enforce them against the user as a third-party beneficiary.
Questions, complaints and claims relating to the application are to be directed to the Provider using the contact details given in the Imprint.

Amendments

The Provider may amend these terms where this is necessary on account of changes to the application or to the applicable law and the amendment does not unreasonably disadvantage the user. Amendments will be notified in the application before they take effect.

Final provisions

German law applies to the exclusion of the United Nations Convention on Contracts for the International Sale of Goods. Where the user is a consumer, this choice of law does not deprive them of the protection afforded by mandatory provisions of the law of their country of habitual residence.

Should individual provisions be or become invalid, the validity of the remaining provisions is unaffected.

The Provider is neither obliged nor willing to participate in dispute resolution proceedings before a consumer arbitration board.