Terms of use and software licence

Version 2026-10-3 · Effective 2026-10-13 · Draft: lawyer review pending

1. Parties and acceptance

This agreement is between {{BUSINESS_NAME}}, owned by {{OWNER_NAME}} at {{POSTAL_ADDRESS}}, and the institution or individual accepting it. If you act for a school, you confirm you have authority to accept for it. Read the terms before agreeing. The planned launch app will record the Terms version, time, installation ID and institution name at activation, linked to the key. This recording is still awaiting implementation. Material changes require a fresh acceptance. Website browsing alone is not acceptance of this software licence.

2. Words used here

“PC” means the computer on which you activate CRATOR. “Key” means your CRATOR activation key. “Signed permission” is the small licence record the app verifies. “Updates-until” is the date shown in your licence that decides eligibility for paid releases. “Read-only” prevents new batch reading while retaining access to local results, review, design and permitted evaluation.

3. Licence per PC

We grant a non-exclusive lifetime licence to run CRATOR on one PC for your institution's internal work. This is permission to use software, not a transfer of its copyright. There is no subscription or licence renewal. Expiry of update coverage does not end your right to keep using the version your licence covers.

4. Activation, renewal and moving

Activate your paid licence once. Activation sends the key, locally hashed PC parts, random installation ID and app/OS details as explained in the Privacy policy. After activation, your paid version works offline forever. No periodic connection or licence renewal is required. If the PC happens to be online, CRATOR may silently refresh the licence record using the same details as activation; going offline or a failed refresh does not end your paid permission.

Reinstalling Windows or CRATOR on the same PC never uses a move. CRATOR recognises the same PC. To change PCs, choose Move this licence to another PC on the old PC while connected to the internet, then activate the new PC. The allowance is two self-service moves in a rolling year. Release requires a brief internet connection; activation on the replacement PC requires internet once.

If the old PC has died, contact {{SUPPORT_EMAIL}} or {{PHONE_WHATSAPP}}. Support moves a fault-related licence free of charge within two working days of the school's request, after a simple confirmation such as the school name and key's last five characters. This does not use a self-service move. Moving does not copy your results or templates; back them up yourself.

5. The demo

Download and install CRATOR, type your school or institution name, agree to the Terms and Privacy policy and press Start free demo in the app. It starts immediately, with no form and no key to enter. A demo key from us can also be entered with Activate.

Daily usage statistics are compulsory for the demo and cannot be switched off. The demo's activation screen will state this before activation. Statistics contain no student data and use only a random installation ID, not a licence key or hardware identifier. If your school does not want these statistics, contact us to ask for a short trial without the demo.

The demo ends at 10,000 scans or seven days from activation, whichever comes first. Demo allowances can be lower on some computers. Normally one demo is allowed per PC unless we approve another. A demo is for assessing suitability, not a guaranteed production service.

Internet is needed for activation and the beginning of each demo batch, when scans are reserved. CRATOR reports the scans actually used after every demo batch, including stopped or failed batches. If disconnected, it queues the report. Unused scans are returned automatically when CRATOR next connects. If a server outage or a CRATOR bug costs your school demo scans, support restores them on request at {{SUPPORT_EMAIL}} or {{PHONE_WHATSAPP}}. Review, design and evaluation of demo batches with an accepted completion receipt can work offline. Demo evaluation does not accept invented response files.

The demo adds a small CRATOR DEMO mark to checked-sheet images and evaluation PDF pages, and to Excel headers/footers and document properties. It does not mark blank designer sheets, CSV, Access files, zone crops or data cells. Demo templates are protected and bound to that PC; saving templates to share requires a paid licence. On paid activation, those local templates are converted to normal files with a backup.

6. PCs without internet

A PC without a direct internet connection can obtain its paid signed CRATOR.licence through our activation page on another connected device. Copy it by USB and load it in the intended PC. This activates the lifetime licence on that PC; no annual replacement file or network renewal is needed. Demos do not have this option. To move or refund a paid licence, the original PC must go online so it can be released or removed; contact support if the original PC has died.

7. Restrictions and lawful exceptions

Each restriction below preserves applicable legal permissions, including Copyright Act 1957 section 52(1)(aa)–(ad). Nothing here removes lawful backup, necessary use/adaptation, interoperability, observation/testing/study or qualifying non-commercial personal-use rights.

• except where the law expressly permits, do not copy or distribute CRATOR beyond your licensed installation and authorised backups.
• except where the law expressly permits, do not modify CRATOR or make derivative versions without a separate written source/modification licence.
• except where the law expressly permits, do not reverse engineer, decompile or disassemble CRATOR.
• except where the law expressly permits, do not bypass activation, allowed-PC limits, demo accounting, integrity checks or signed permissions.
• except where the law expressly permits, do not rent, sublicense, resell or share your key with another institution.
• except where the law expressly permits, do not remove copyright, licence or demo notices.

8. Source access and ownership

Source access or paid modification rights exist only if separately agreed in writing. CRATOR's own code, branding and documentation remain their owners' property. Your scans, templates and results remain yours or their lawful owners'. Feedback may be used to improve CRATOR; sending it does not assign your student records or confidential materials to us.

9. Open-source components

CRATOR contains software, models and fonts with their own licences, including MIT, BSD, Apache, PSF and MPL where applicable. See the release's third-party licence notices, supplied in THIRD_PARTY_NOTICES. Each component's own licence prevails for that component, including rights this agreement cannot restrict. Such notices do not grant rights in CRATOR's proprietary code. The exact component inventory must match the delivered build.

10. Your data and responsibilities

Normal sheet reading, review, evaluation and report creation process sheets, answers, names, marks, results and templates on your PC. These contents are not sent to CRATOR's servers. Optional Google transfers are described in section 11. You control scanning, access, backups, retention and sharing. The institution is the Data Fiduciary, meaning the organisation responsible for deciding how student information is used, when the DPDP provisions apply and must have the lawful permissions, notices and parental consent required by applicable law. Secure your PC and review exported data before sharing. Contact support without student sheets or personal-data attachments.

11. Optional AI handwriting

Offline handwriting runs locally. Google's AI reader is optional; choose it only after approving the transfer. It sends images cut from selected handwriting areas, their field names, reading hints and instructions, and the expected answer format directly to Google under your own key. A batch or template test can reuse areas already set to AI, so check the saved reader choice before starting. The separate contact-reading command also sends the template's contact area to Google. You are responsible for Google's charges, terms, lawful data transfer and appropriate consent. We recommend a billing-enabled paid key for student information. Google's unpaid-service terms prohibit submitting personal, sensitive or confidential information and may allow training use and human review. Even paid services have security/legal retention and international processing. Read Google's terms, including adult-use and service restrictions. CRATOR's servers do not receive the key or crops.

12. Licensing data and statistics

The Privacy policy lists activation data, demo scan counts and combined image hashes and every daily statistics group. Paid users may switch statistics off; activation, release and optional online refresh details remain as described in the Privacy policy; no paid periodic renewal is required. Demo statistics are compulsory, as explained before activation. They contain no student data and use only a random installation ID, not a licence key or hardware identifier. The server can link that ID to your licence; it is not anonymous. You can ask for a short trial without the demo instead. Neither reporting nor licensing uploads student records. You may inspect the queued report in the planned launch app's Privacy and data settings. A lawyer must review the compulsory demo-statistics condition before launch.

13. Price, delivery, cancellation and refunds

The price is ₹38,000 one time, including GST, or $499 for buyers outside India. One licence covers one PC for life, with every feature and one year of updates. This website has no checkout; contact us to buy. There is no subscription or automatic recurring charge.

Delivery means your school actually receives the key by email, WhatsApp or another agreed channel. A payment acknowledgement without the key is not delivery. If it does not arrive, contact us to resend it. There is no physical shipping.

Request a refund within 48 hours of purchase, with the licensed PC connected to the internet so its licence can be removed. Delivery failures, defective or materially misdescribed products and statutory remedies are addressed separately in the Refund and cancellation policy; the 48-hour window does not limit rights provided by law.

14. Updates and support

The paid licence includes one year of updates. After that, updates renewal is optional; you may keep using your covered version forever. The displayed updates-until date determines which paid releases you may use. Releases marked free do not need paid update coverage. A release marked paid requires an updates-until date on or after its release date. Demo users are eligible for releases while their demo rights remain valid. Expired update coverage does not end an otherwise valid licence to your covered version.

CRATOR never downloads or installs a paid version your licence does not cover by itself. It first explains what the update needs. Versions your licence covers stay available to download. Only if someone installs an uncovered paid version manually does that version stop reading new sheets. It tells you how to return to a covered version. Your licence itself stays valid.

The current updater compares the downloaded file with a SHA-256 hash supplied by GitHub, a code used to detect a changed or incomplete file. Signed release information and a school-lab update setting are planned for the launch release and are still awaiting implementation. IT staff can currently disable the updater through its startup configuration. Support is available at {{SUPPORT_EMAIL}} and {{PHONE_WHATSAPP}}, during {{SUPPORT_HOURS}}. Our target first reply is one to two working days, not a guaranteed repair time. We will state any separately purchased support terms before sale.

15. Review before publishing results

OMR, offline handwriting and AI reading can be wrong. Scan quality, sheet design, marks, handwriting and answer-key setup affect results. You must review flags, check the answer key and marking rules, verify important handwriting/IDs, and approve the results before publishing or making decisions about pupils. A sheet without a flag is not guaranteed correct. Keep originals and an appropriate manual review process. CRATOR supports staff judgement; it does not decide a student's outcome for you.

16. Warranty and fair limits of liability

We will use reasonable care in supplying CRATOR and addressing confirmed defects. We do not promise perfect recognition, uninterrupted internet services or compatibility with every sheet or PC. Try the demo with representative lawful samples before purchase. These statements do not exclude statutory quality guarantees or remedies that cannot lawfully be excluded.

To the extent permitted by law, neither party is liable for indirect losses or resulting losses that could not reasonably have been predicted. For ordinary contract claims, our proposed total compensation limit is the greater of the fees paid for the affected licence in the previous 12 months or its original price. The original-price minimum protects an older perpetual licence from a zero limit. A failure by the school to review results counts only to the extent it caused the loss. Exam-related losses are not all excluded.

The exclusions and cap do not apply to fraud, deliberate misconduct, gross negligence, death/personal injury caused by negligence, breaches for which the law does not allow a compensation limit, or consumer remedies that the law does not allow us to exclude. A court may decline an unfair standard term. These clauses require a lawyer's review before sale.

17. Third-party claims

Each party remains responsible for its own unlawful acts. If your unauthorised use of data or software causes a third-party claim, tell us promptly and cooperate reasonably. You do not automatically owe us unlimited compensation for third-party claims. Any allocation of defence costs must be proportionate to fault, permit participation in the defence and preserve mandatory law.

18. Suspension and termination

You may stop using CRATOR at any time. Immediate suspension is allowed only for a key used on more PCs than it allows, fraud or payment reversal, or attacks on CRATOR's servers. We tell the school the reason and review the case within two working days of suspension. If we were wrong, we restore the key at once, including after a mistaken PC or clock diagnosis. For any other material breach, we give notice and 15 days to remedy it before suspension or termination.

Demo expiry, a paused/revoked key, an incorrect clock, PC mismatch or damaged program files can prevent new reading. A mistaken PC or clock block gets the same two-working-day review and immediate restoration. CRATOR does not delete or lock your student files because a licence check fails. Valid local results remain on your PC. Demo evaluation still requires its valid completed-batch receipt.

After termination, stop using rights that have ended. Refunds, obligations already owed and necessary dispute/privacy clauses survive to the extent appropriate. A refund cancels the paid key and requires the licensed PC to be online so its local licence can be removed. The contractual right to use the cancelled licence ends with cancellation.

19. Lawful use, changes and exceptional events

Use CRATOR lawfully, including applicable export and sanctions rules. We will give reasonable notice of material Terms changes and obtain fresh acceptance for continued newly affected rights. A change will not remove rights you have already paid for or remedies provided by law. Events beyond either party's reasonable control excuse delay only for as long as they prevent performance; they do not remove refund rights for undelivered service.

20. Governing law and courts

Indian law governs. Courts at {{COURT_CITY}} hear disputes only where they have lawful jurisdiction. Mandatory jurisdiction rules and your right to use consumer dispute bodies still apply. You may complain to an appropriate regulator or consumer body. No arbitrator is appointed unilaterally by these terms.

21. Notices, complaints and the whole agreement

Send notices to {{SUPPORT_EMAIL}} or {{POSTAL_ADDRESS}}. We use your agreed contact address for licence notices. The grievance officer is {{GRIEVANCE_OFFICER_NAME}} at {{GRIEVANCE_EMAIL}} and {{PHONE_WHATSAPP}}. Complaints are acknowledged within 48 hours and addressed within one month. See Contact.

These terms, your agreed order and the linked refund policy form the software agreement; a specifically agreed order term prevails on that subject. The Privacy policy explains processing and does not waive privacy rights. If one term is invalid, the rest applies where it can fairly stand. Neither party may transfer this agreement in a way that harms the other's rights without the other's consent. The exception is a lawful business transfer that preserves the obligations and gives the other party notice. Failure to enforce a term once is not a permanent waiver.