Terms

Website Copyright, Ownership and Use

When your final payment has cleared, copyright will be automatically assigned as follows:

You will own the final website files such as HTML, CSS, JPG and any other files that make up your website online. If we release the files to you to host with someone else, you should keep them somewhere safe as we are not required to keep a copy. You do not have permission to resell or redistribute the files, even if you modify them in any way. You own all elements of text, images and data you provided, unless someone else owns them and gave you permission to use it.

We will own the unique combination of all the elements that constitutes a complete design and we will license that you, exclusively and in perpetuity for that project only, unless we agree otherwise. We will not release any source files we used to create any website files, such as Photoshop or Illustrator files, unless we agree otherwise. Any preliminary proofs including artwork, graphics, layouts, etc., that were not selected in the final design, will remain the full property of BlackStone Studio and may be used in future projects for other clients.

We may use non-branding website graphics, icons or effects on your website, that are part of our design resources, and that may be used alike for other client websites as well.

We love to show off our work, so we reserve the right to display and link to your project as part of our portfolio and to write about it on websites, in magazine articles, books, social media and any online or offline publication for the purpose of creative recognition, professional advancement and service advertising. We may also enter the work in contests or competitions, unless we agree otherwise.

Blog Feature

We use WordPress.org blog software, which is free software released under a GPL license. We also use the WordPress.org default theme and plug-ins that can extend the blog’s functionality, all of which are also under a GPL license. You will not own this software, but you can use it for free. We are not responsible for any errors, updates or changes from Wordpress.org. Our cost is based on installing the blog, customizing the design, and in most cases hosting it for you.

Online Store Feature

We can install an online store on your website that you can setup, manage and update yourself. We will own the all the elements that constitutes the online store and we will license that to you for your website use only. You are not allowed to copy, transfer, alter, reuse or sell any components of the online store.

The online store works only with PayPal "Website Payments Standard". You will be able to manage and create PayPal buttons through an admin access area. The buttons are automatically created in your PayPal account and placed on a personalized storefront page on your website simultaneously. The online store has basic features but is limited by the options offered by PayPal under their "Website Payments Standard".

We do not create, access or manage your PayPal account ever. We are not responsible for any issues related to your PayPal account information, settings or costs. We will never ask for your PayPal login information. The online store communicates with PayPal through an interface called API credentials (Application Programming Interface).

Attribution and Third Party Licenses

In some projects we may use open source, general public license, freeware scripts, codes or files that may require attribution in the source code. Although you own the final website files, as long as those scripts are in place, you may not remove the attribution. You also may not remove the link back attribution to BlackStone Studio, unless we agree otherwise.

In some projects we may use third party scripts, codes or files that require a license. These licenses are generally done by domain which means you cannot utilize any licensed material under any domain other than the one used for your website. If you need additional licenses, we can provide a separate proposal for that.

SEO/SEM

We do not provide SEO (Search Engine Optimization) or SEM (Search Engine Marketing) services. We make an effort to make your website, blog or online store search engine friendly but we make no guarantees that your website, blog or online store will be ranked organically on search engines.

Mobile Conversion Service

Your website will be designed primarily for desktop browsers, and while it may perform properly on some mobile devices and tablets, we cannot guarantee that it will look or work the same on all.

We offer a mobile conversion service that can change your website to a mobile friendly layout when accessed through a mobile device. This service uses software that pulls the content from your website directly. Some features from the website may not convert to mobile accurately, but the software provides varied features and solutions that can be implemented in these cases.

Browser Compatibility and Web Compliance

We test our work in current versions of major desktop browsers including those made by Apple (Safari), Google (Chrome), Microsoft (Internet Explorer), and Mozilla Firefox, but we cannot guarantee that the website will work and look exactly the same in each. We will not test in other older browsers unless you specify otherwise. We also cannot guarantee that your website will be compliant with all current web standards.

Hosting

We prefer you host your websites with us so we can help you manage it and provide support for any hosting related issues.

If you choose to host the website somewhere else, we cannot guarantee that we will be able to offer you all the services we have available when hosting with us. You will need to provide us with access to your hosting server for the purpose of installing, updating and uploading files. We will not be responsible for providing any technical support on your hosting server. You will be responsible for any and all hosting fees your hosting provider may charge.

If you decide to move from one hosting provider to another, we cannot guarantee that all files will work accordingly and we will not be responsible for transferring any content stored on databases from your blog, CMS and online store.

Domain Registration

We encourage you to purchase, register, renew and manage your domain on your own. We can also do it for you. We can transfer the domain back to you at any time, but if there are any fees related to the transfer, you will be responsible to pay those fees.

If we registered your domain for you and you decide not to renew the domain, we will keep ownership of it and we will have the right to resell it to someone else or put it up for auction.

Web Maintenance

A reasonable amount of changes and revisions are done throughout the design and programming process. Once the website is completed, any additional changes or maintenance will have added cost. Website maintenance packages are available.

Client’s Responsibility

You guarantee that all elements of text, fonts, images, artwork, audio, video and documents you provide, post or use are either owned by you, or that you have permission to use them. You guarantee that all products/services sold through your website are not illegal, restricted or fraudulent.

We are not responsible for writing any text copy for your website.

You will be responsible for paying any and all legal expenses that are a result of a lawsuit against BlackStone Studio for graphics, artwork, documents and/or content you provide to us, as well as any content or material that you use, post or share through your website and for any product/service you sell through your website.

You are responsible for backing up any content that you use, post or share on your website through a blog, CMS or online store.

When using the online store, you are solely responsible for setting up your PayPal account information and settings, such as financial information, tax rates, shipping preferences and calculations, etc. PayPal will be processing all transactions. BlackStone Studio does not process any transactions. PayPal is governed by their own set of terms, policies and fees. We encourage you to learn about them.

We do not endorse, support, represent or guarantee the truthfulness, accuracy, or reliability of any information on your website. You are entirely responsible for the content of the website and any harm resulting from it.

Logo Copyright, Ownership and Use

When your final payment has cleared, copyright will be automatically assigned as follows:

You will own the final logo artwork and you will receive from us the logo in different file formats such as EPS, PDF and JPG. You should keep them somewhere safe as we are not required to keep a copy. You do not have permission to resell or redistribute the files, even if you have modified them in any way.

The fonts we use on your logo are either licensed to us or are free to use for commercial purposes. You cannot copyright the font itself. When we release the final logo files to you, the font will be converted to vector outlines. We can give you the name of the fonts used in your logo and guide you in finding where to purchase or download them, but we cannot redistribute them ourselves.

We will design your logo in CMYK color mode, unless otherwise requested. Colors vary from screen to screen, and from printer to printer. If you want to choose Pantone colors for your logo, we can assist you in the selection, but we cannot be responsible for any issues related to color output and variations.

Any preliminary proofs including artwork, graphics, layouts, etc., that were not selected in the final design, will remain the full property of BlackStone Studio and may be used in future projects for other clients.

We love to show off our work, so we reserve the right to display and link to your project as part of our portfolio and to write about it on websites, in magazine articles, books, social media and any online or offline publication for the purpose of creative recognition, professional advancement and service advertising. We may also enter the work in contests or competitions, unless we agree otherwise.

Graphic Designed Materials Copyright, Ownership and Use

Graphic designed materials refer to business cards, flyers, postcards, ads, posters, banners, booklets, brochures and any marketing, promotional or advertising pieces we design for you. When your final payment has cleared, copyright will be automatically assigned as follows:

You will receive the final project file in a non-editable format such as a rasterized PDF or JPG. We will save the file accordingly if intended for print, including bleeds and crop marks. You should keep them somewhere safe as we are not required to keep a copy. You do not have permission to resell or redistribute the files, even if you have modified them in any way.

We will own the unique combination of all the elements that constitutes a complete design and we will license that you, exclusively and in perpetuity for that project only, unless we agree otherwise. We will not release any source files we used to create the final work, such as Photoshop or Illustrator files, unless we agree otherwise. Any preliminary proofs including artwork, graphics, layouts, etc., that were not selected in the final design, will remain the full property of BlackStone Studio and may be used in future projects for other clients.

We may use non-branding graphics, icons or effects on your project, that are part of our design resources, and that may be used alike for other client projects as well.

We will design your project in CMYK color mode. Colors vary from screen to screen, and from printer to printer. We cannot be responsible for any issues related to color output and variations.

We love to show off our work, so we reserve the right to display and link to your project as part of our portfolio and to write about it on websites, in magazine articles, books, social media and any online or offline publication for the purpose of creative recognition, professional advancement and service advertising. We may also enter the work in contests or competitions, unless we agree otherwise.

Changes & Revisions

A reasonable amount of changes and revisions are done throughout the design process. Once the project is completed, any additional changes will have added cost.

Client’s Responsibility

You guarantee that any fonts files you provide to us are licensed to you, or that you have permission to use them. You guarantee that all elements of text, images, artwork, graphics, sketches or documents you provide are either owned by you, or that you have permission to use them.

We are not responsible for writing any text copy for your project.

You will be responsible for paying any and all legal expenses that are a result of a lawsuit against BlackStone Studio for fonts, graphics, artwork, documents, and/or content you provide to us.

We do not endorse, support, represent or guarantee the truthfulness, accuracy, or reliability of any information on marketing, promotional or advertising pieces. You are entirely responsible for the content of project and any harm resulting from it.

Photography Copyright, Ownership and Use

When your final payment has cleared, copyright will be automatically assigned as follows:

You will receive a selected number of photographs from your session in a high res JPG format file. You should keep them somewhere safe as we are not required to keep a copy.

We will own the original photograph files, but you have permission to print, publish and reproduce the digital files we release to you. We can provide you with a written photo release if necessary. You do not have permission to resell them or claim credit for taking them. We ask that you credit us when posting images online or in offline publications. We will not release any RAW files.

We love to show off our work, so we reserve the right to display and link to your project as part of our portfolio and to write about it on websites, in magazine articles, books, social media and any online or offline publication for the purpose of creative recognition, professional advancement and service advertising. We may also enter the work in contests or competitions, unless we agree otherwise.

We offer different types of printing services and work with multiple vendors in order to carry various card stocks and finishes. We only offer digital color printing, and we cannot guarantee a perfect color match to specific colors, not even on reprints of the same project.

Proposals & Agreements

We will provide a proposal to you for the project which we will honor for 30 days. If the proposal is approved, we will send you a written agreement that will need to be signed before any work is started.

Payments

We are sure you understand how important it is as a small business that you pay the invoices that we send you promptly. As we are also sure you will want to stay friends, you agree to stick tight to the following payment schedule.

You will pay 50% deposit before any work is started. Then, you will pay the balance due, plus any added services along the way that you may have requested, at the completion of the project.

Projects are considered complete once we have finished our commitment of the work. We will still consider the work complete even if you decide to postpone the launch of your website or if you delay in providing us with text, images or any content necessary to prepare final files for a design project.

We accept the following forms of payment: Check, Cash, Credit Card payments through PayPal and online bank payments through Inuit Payment Network.

Refunds and Termination

Your deposit is non-refundable. If you decided to pay in full and the project needs to be terminated before it is completed, we will provide a partial refund based on the amount of work that was done. We reserve the right to terminate or suspend a project for any reason including without limitation if you breach the terms. If a project is terminated, suspended or canceled, no files or rights will be released for the project.

Schedule

If for some reason you need to pause or postpone the work on your project for a period of time of up to 30 days, we will request that you make an additional payment towards the balance. If you need more than 30 days, we will request that you make an additional payment towards the balance and will add an extension fee based on the amount of time the project is postponed.

Non Communication

If we are unable to communicate with you by phone or email for up to 15 days during the design or development of your project, we will cancel the work without prior notice and no refund will be issued.

Clients from the Same Industry

We work with many clients, some of which are in the same industry, and may be competitors. We design everything custom and unique to each business and never share any information that is trusted to us or deemed confidential. We always strive to create unique designs tailored to each business.

Vendors

We work with multiple vendors and we are resellers for services such as hosting and printing, however we do not share our vendor information or contacts.

File Manager

We offer a convenient online file manager to help you transfer large files to us and vice versa. This file manager is not encrypted so please do not upload any documents or files that may contain sensitive information (such as credit card numbers). We cannot provide a 100% guarantee of data security.

All services and/or goods you purchase from BlackStone Studio and all information on this website are provided "as is" without warranty of any kind that they will be uninterrupted, timely, secure or error free.

We are not liable to you or any third-party for any direct, indirect, special, punitive, incidental, or consequential damages, including lost profits, lost savings, business interruption, loss of data or other losses, even if you have advised us of them, resulting from the use of our services/goods or the use of this website. Finally, if any provision of these terms shall be unlawful, void, or for any reason unenforceable, then that provision shall be deemed severable and shall not affect the validity and enforceability of any remaining provisions.

Google Analytics

This website uses Google Analytics. Google Analytics uses first-party cookies to track visitor interactions. These cookies are used to store information, such as the time that the current visit occurred, whether the visitor has been to the site before and what site referred the visitor to the web page. It also collects the IP address of website visitors in order to provide a sense of where in the world their visitors come from.

Google Analytics does not collect any personal information that personally identifies you, such as your name, email address or billing information, or other data which can be reasonably linked to such information.

We use this information to analyze site performance and improve our website.

Contact Forms, Mailing Lists & Email Communication

We may collect information you enter through the website contact forms, send to us by email, or submit through a mailing sign up form, such as name, email address, phone number, etc.

We may use this information to respond to you regarding the reason you contacted us, to personalize your experience and to provide customer service. Unless you ask us not to, we may also contact you via email in the future to tell you about products or services, updates, company news, special offers, promotions or general announcements.

If you are on our mailing list, you will always have the ability to unsubscribe. We will not share your information with any third party other than as necessary to fulfill your request.

PayPal

When paying for a project through PayPal, your account information is collected and stored on PayPal’s secure site and it not directly available to us other than basic contact information, such as name, email or shipping address.

Any contact and financial information that PayPal collects from you in order to process the transaction is governed by the PayPal Privacy Policy.

Inuit Payment Network

When paying for a project through the Inuit Payment Network, your account information is collected and stored on the Inuit Payment Network secure site and it not directly available to us other than basic contact information, such as name, email or shipping address.

Any contact and financial information that the Inuit Payment Network collects from you in order to process the transaction is governed by the Inuit Payment Network Privacy Policy.

Third Party Links

This website may contain links to other sites. We are not responsible for the content or privacy practices or the use of cookies of such other sites. These third party sites have separate and independent privacy policies. We therefore have no responsibility or liability for the content and activities of these linked sites.

Submitting Comments

In the event that we permit you to post information on this website, such as blog comments, please note that any information that you post using such features becomes public information. You must not disclose any of your personal information in comments, forums or any other similar feature of this website that you do not want shared publicly.

Children

Our services are not directed to persons under 13. We do not knowingly collect personally identifiable information from children under 13. If a parent or guardian becomes aware that his or her child has provided us with personal information without their consent, please contact us and we will delete such information from our files.

Security

We use third party vendors and hosting partners to provide the necessary hardware, software, networking, storage, and related technology required. We implement reasonable security measures to maintain the safety of the information collected online or stored electronically. However, because of the inherent risks associated with the internet, we cannot provide a 100% guarantee of data security. In the event of a breach, we will try to notify you, but you agree that we will not have any other liability other than providing the required notice. If you do not agree to this waiver, you should not provide personally identifiable information to us.

Cookies

We may use Cookies, which are small files that a site or its service provider transfers to your computer’s hard drive through your Web browser, that enables the sites or service providers systems to recognize your browser and capture and remember certain information.

We use cookies to keep track of advertisements and compile aggregate data about site traffic and site interaction so that we can offer better site experiences and tools in the future. We may contract with third-party service providers to assist us in better understanding our site visitors. These service providers are not permitted to use the information collected on our behalf except to help us conduct and improve our business.

Disclosing Information

We do not sell, trade, or otherwise transfer your personally identifiable information to third parties. This does not include trusted third parties who assist us in operating our website, conducting our business, or servicing you, so long as those parties agree to keep this information confidential. We may also release your information when we believe release is appropriate to comply with the law, enforce our site policies, or protect ours or others' rights, property, or safety. However, non-personally identifiable visitor information may be provided to other parties for marketing, advertising, or other uses.

Consent

By using this website, you agree to the privacy policy. If we decide to change our privacy policy, we will post those changes on this page.