Legal

Terms of Use

Effective October 31, 2026 · Previous version effective October 30, 2026 (TOS-2026-10-30)

These Terms of Use ("Terms") govern your access to and use of ChaosMark, available at chaos-mark.com ("the Service"). By using the Service you agree to these Terms. If you do not agree, do not use the Service.

1. Contracting Entity; No Personal Liability

The Service is operated by SapienCX LLC, a Virginia limited liability company ("SapienCX," "we," "us"). These Terms are between you and SapienCX LLC only. No member, manager, officer, employee, or contractor of SapienCX LLC has any personal liability under these Terms.

2. What the Service Does

The public Service currently provides hosted verification and a non-mutating Create demonstration. Hosted Verify inspects submitted files and any supplied evidence and reports bounded technical findings. no-charge Verify accepts JPG and PNG photos up to 1 MB per file. For Content Credentials (C2PA), hosted Verify reports only whether a credential is present, absent, or could not be checked; it does not validate a credential. Full C2PA validation is a separate paid hosted service for JPEG, PNG, WebP, MP3, WAV, M4A and MP4, available from a paid browser account or the developer API within the published limits. Standard subscriptions and validation packs use secure Stripe Checkout and activate automatically after verified payment confirmation. The Create demonstration does not upload a selected file or issue, sign, or retain evidence. Public hosted issuance is unavailable. Features, supported formats, and availability may change over time.

3. Evidence Records Are a Technical Signal, Not Legal Proof

A ChaosMark evidence record, whether issued by the hosted Service or created by the ChaosMark Local Agent, is a technical signal about a file's origin and integrity. It is not legal proof of authenticity, ownership, authorship, or truthfulness, and must not be relied upon as such. ChaosMark is not a court or legal authority and does not determine legal conclusions. Verification indicates whether a file matches a ChaosMark record that the checking tool supports: hosted Verify checks whether a file exactly matches a record in the ChaosMark registry and, for images, whether a record you supply is signed with a key published on the Trust page and matches the image; the Local Agent checks the evidence packages it creates. A match does not, on its own, establish that no edit was made, who created the file, or that any fact depicted is true. You are responsible for assessing whether the Service and its findings fit your intended use, corroborating findings where appropriate, and making your own decisions. You may share a report, but must preserve its scope and findings and must not represent it as a certification of legal or regulatory compliance. Shared reports do not create a contract, professional duty or third-party beneficiary right between SapienCX LLC and a recipient who is not our customer, except where the law requires otherwise.

4. Public Core and Commercial Engagements

These Terms govern the public tools, standard subscriptions, one-time validation packs and authorized API or agent use. A separately signed commercial agreement controls only the terms and scope it expressly changes.

4.1 Public Experience

The public website currently includes an accessible Verify experience and a non-mutating Create demonstration. The Create demonstration does not upload a selected file or issue, sign, or retain evidence. Public hosted Create issuance is not offered. Paid C2PA validation is available through the browser account, and developer API access is included for customers who choose to use it (section 4.2). The one local package offered is ChaosMark Local Agent 0.2.2 for Windows 11 x64; no local package is offered for macOS or Linux.

The Local Agent runs on your computer. It creates its own signed evidence packages (.chaosmark files) with a signing key created on that computer, and it checks those packages on that computer. Hosted Verify on this website does not check .chaosmark packages. How the Local Agent handles files and keys is described in the Privacy Policy.

Monthly prices for the Developer, Growth and Scale plans are shown on the Pricing page. Buy a standard plan or validation pack through secure Stripe Checkout. Account access and the purchased allowance activate automatically after verified payment confirmation. Developers may reveal an optional API key once from the paid account. A sales-assisted plan requires a signed order form or other written agreement (section 4.2); a commercial evaluation, integration, support, or controlled access requires a separate signed agreement.

The Public Core is not a service level, and nothing in it is a commitment that any particular function, format, capacity, or endpoint will remain available. Features, supported formats, limits, endpoints, and availability may change or be discontinued, as stated in section 2.

4.2 Commercial engagements

Standard paid plans. The Developer, Growth and Scale plans give browser-account access to paid C2PA validation (section 4.4), with optional developer API access, at the monthly prices and Evidence Unit allowances published on the Pricing page. Developer, Growth and Scale are standard self-service plans purchased through secure Stripe Checkout, with automatic activation after verified payment confirmation. One-time packs provide the quantity, validity period and daily limits displayed before payment.

Enterprise and other engagements. Enterprise deployment, private deployments, technical evaluations, pilots, OEM and embedding arrangements, integration work, professional services, and support are commercial engagements. They are scoped by proposal and are provided under a separate written agreement — an order form, a master services agreement, an API or other commercial agreement, or a combination — and may be paid. They are not available for self-service purchase on this website.

Where a signed commercial agreement applies to your use, that agreement controls and prevails over these Terms to the extent of any conflict, for the scope it covers. These Terms continue to govern any use of the Public Core that the commercial agreement does not cover.

A proposal, quotation, scoping document, or discussion is not itself an agreement and creates no obligation on either party until a written agreement is signed.

4.3 Dependencies, capacity, and change

ChaosMark depends on third-party infrastructure, randomness sources, network providers, and other suppliers. We may change, substitute, restrict, degrade, or discontinue any part of the Service — including any part of the Public Core — where necessary to respond to a change in a third-party dependency, its cost or terms, our capacity or infrastructure limits, a security or abuse concern, or a legal, regulatory, or contractual requirement. Section 12 continues to apply to events beyond our reasonable control.

The disclaimers, limitation of liability, and indemnification in sections 8, 9, and 10 apply to the Public Core in full.

This section applies when a paid plan gives you browser-account or API access to hosted C2PA validation. Your order form or written agreement controls where it differs (section 4.2). Technical details are in the developer documentation.

What it covers. Hosted paid validation currently accepts JPEG, PNG, WebP, MP3, WAV, M4A and MP4, within the size, profile and request limits on the Pricing and C2PA pages (for example, the number of requests a plan may make in a UTC day). Each plan includes a monthly allowance of Evidence Units, as stated on the Pricing page or in your order form or written agreement. Requests beyond the allowance are refused; no overage is charged.

What is billed. A validation that completes and returns a report uses the number of Evidence Units stated on the Pricing page or in your order form or written agreement. You pay for the completed evaluation, not for a particular finding: a report that finds no Content Credential, or an invalid or untrusted one, is a completed validation and is billed. Requests that are refused or do not complete, as defined in the developer documentation (for example, refused or unreadable input, unsupported media, or a timeout), use 0 Evidence Units. If a failure on our side leaves the billing outcome undetermined, the API says so, and the final billing status is settled by reconciliation; such a request is not treated as uncharged until it is settled.

Retries and reports. Each request carries an idempotency key that you choose. Resending the same key with the same file never runs or bills the validation again. A completed report is available for recovery for up to 24 hours, so that a lost response can be recovered. After that, it is no longer returned; stored report details are removed later by cleanup, not necessarily at that moment, and may remain in backups (see the Privacy Policy). A request with the same key after that point is answered that the report has expired (or, if the service is temporarily unavailable, is refused without a new charge), the original validation stays billed once, and nothing runs or is billed again. A request with a new key is treated as a new paid validation and billed under the rules above; while an earlier purchase of the same file is still open it is refused, and while its report is still available a repeat purchase must be explicitly confirmed.

No guarantee of truth. A validation report states technical findings about a file's Content Credentials. Like any ChaosMark result, it is not legal proof of authenticity, authorship, or truthfulness (section 3), and the disclaimers in section 8 apply.

4.5 Online purchases: subscriptions, validation packs, cancellation and refunds

This section applies to a Developer, Growth or Scale plan bought through secure Stripe Checkout. A plan activated under a signed order form or written agreement follows that agreement instead.

Charges and automatic renewal. Your plan is a monthly subscription that renews automatically every month until you cancel it. You authorize us, through Stripe, to charge the payment method you provide the monthly price shown on the Pricing page when you subscribe, and again at the start of each monthly period. Your plan starts when Stripe’s signed confirmation that the first payment succeeded is recorded. Prices are in US dollars. You authorize only the stated recurring subscription amount and any applicable taxes disclosed before you pay; there are no automatic usage overages. Prices exclude applicable taxes unless expressly stated otherwise. Any tax collected is itemized before you pay. Available payment methods and purchase regions are those supported for this service at checkout; you remain responsible for taxes the law requires you to pay.

Allowance. Each monthly period includes the plan’s Evidence Unit allowance. Unused Evidence Units do not carry over to the next period and have no cash value. Requests beyond the allowance are refused; no overage is charged (section 4.4).

How to cancel. You can cancel at any time from your ChaosMark account page. If you can no longer sign in to your account (for example, your browser session expired and you did not keep a recovery code), you can still stop future renewals by contacting tom@phase3ai.com from the email address on your Stripe receipt and quoting its receipt number. We use that request only to locate the ChaosMark subscription and stop its future renewals. Stopping renewals this way does not restore access to your ChaosMark account or its reports.

When cancellation takes effect. A cancellation takes effect at the end of the monthly period you have already paid for. Until then the plan keeps working and you can use the rest of that period’s allowance; you will not be charged again. You can undo a cancellation before the period ends. When the period ends, the plan stops and paid validation is no longer available.

Plan changes. A change to a different plan that you request from your account takes effect at your next renewal, at the new plan’s price. The current period is not prorated.

Refunds. All subscription charges are non-refundable. We do not offer discretionary refunds, including for dissatisfaction, voluntary cancellation, or unused paid time or Evidence Units; unused Evidence Units expire and have no cash value. This does not limit any cancellation, withdrawal, refund or remedy that applicable law requires, and it does not authorize duplicate, erroneous or unauthorized charges: if we charge you twice, charge you after your cancellation took effect, or charge you for a period in which we could not provide paid validation because of a failure on our side, write to us and we will correct it. If a payment is refunded in full, the plan is suspended for the period that payment covered.

Failed payments and disputes. If a renewal payment fails, new validations pause until the payment succeeds; Stripe may retry it. If a payment is disputed and the dispute is decided against us, the account is suspended until the matter is resolved.

Price changes. We will give at least 30 days of notice before charging a different renewal price. You may cancel before that renewal. Your current period is never repriced.

One-time validation packs. A validation pack is a one-time, non-renewing purchase for the quantity of validations and Evidence Units shown before payment. Each completed report uses 2 Evidence Units, and the daily request limit shown before payment applies. The allowance activates only after we record the payment provider’s signed confirmation of successful payment, does not replenish, cannot exceed its stated allowance, is not transferable or redeemable for cash, and expires at the end of the validity period shown before payment. Unused validations and Evidence Units expire without a discretionary refund, subject to mandatory rights and correction of duplicate, erroneous or unauthorized charges. An authorized person may give software or an AI agent a revocable purchase credential limited by permitted offers, a per-order ceiling, an aggregate ceiling and an expiry. The contracting customer remains responsible for that delegated authority and may revoke it; a model assertion, redirect or unsigned paid flag never activates an allowance.

Billing questions. If you believe a charge is wrong, write to the contact address in section 18 promptly. Receipts and invoices are sent by Stripe.

4.6 Organizations, authorized users and AI agents

If you use the Service for an organization, or direct an AI agent, automation, employee, contractor or other person to act through your ChaosMark account or credentials, you represent that you have authority to bind the contracting customer and to authorize that access and the related subscription commitment. The contracting customer is responsible for its authorized users, delegated agents, configured spending limits, instructions, applications, use of credentials under its control, submitted materials and resulting decisions or actions, except to the extent applicable law allocates responsibility otherwise.

An AI agent’s request does not by itself establish legal authority to contract. Paid API and agent access is issued to an accountable person or organization that has accepted these Terms; an agent acts only within the credentials and limits that customer gives it.

You remain responsible for interpreting, corroborating and deciding how to rely on technical findings. ChaosMark provides independently checkable digital evidence about what was checked and when. It does not establish the legality, truth, authorship, ownership, identity, intent, real-world occurrence or admissibility of the underlying content, or of your downstream decisions.

4.7 Acceptance and which terms apply

Buying a paid plan, and receiving paid API or agent access, requires that you first affirmatively accept these Terms, the Privacy Policy and the plan’s pricing by ticking an unticked box that links to them. We record which versions you accepted, a cryptographic fingerprint of those documents, the time, and the account and plan concerned. For no-charge hosted file checks, using the tool after the notice shown next to it is your acceptance of these Terms.

These Terms apply to every ChaosMark user and customer, except to the extent a separately executed enterprise or other written agreement accepted by SapienCX LLC specifically changes identified terms for the scope it covers; all unmodified terms continue to apply. No salesperson, model, agent, operator or payment provider may change these Terms orally or through chat. Your earlier acceptances remain governed by the versions you accepted; a new version applies to a paid plan only after you accept it.

5. Your Content; Limited License; Retention

You retain all rights to files you submit to an accessible hosted tool or to paid C2PA validation. You grant SapienCX LLC only a limited, temporary license to process those files for the sole purpose of providing the requested check or validation. The Create demonstration processes the selected file only in your browser and does not upload or retain it. Files submitted to paid C2PA validation are processed to produce the report and are not durably retained; the report is available for recovery for up to 24 hours (section 4.4), and billing records, including a cryptographic fingerprint of each submitted file, are kept as described in the Privacy Policy. You represent that you have the rights necessary to submit each file you provide. See the Privacy Policy.

6. Acceptable Use; Anti-Abuse; No Resale

You agree not to: (a) use the Service unlawfully or to infringe any person's rights; (b) submit content you have no right to submit; (c) attempt to overload, disrupt, circumvent bot protection, scrape, or automate access outside the authorized API and its published limits; or (d) resell, redistribute, or provide the Service to third parties as your own. We may rate-limit, challenge, block, or withdraw access to protect the Service and its users.

Lawful and authorized use. You represent, warrant and covenant that you have all legal rights, permissions, consents and authority required to submit each file, instruction, data set, credential, automated request and other material, to engage in the underlying activity, and to use each Service and resulting report in the manner intended. Your use, the activities it facilitates, and all materials you submit or authorize others to submit will comply with applicable law and will not infringe, misappropriate or violate third-party rights, including intellectual-property, privacy, confidentiality, publicity and contractual rights. You may not use or attempt to use ChaosMark to conduct, conceal, facilitate or promote unlawful activity, fraud, unauthorized access, malware, abuse, deception, or circumvention of security, export or sanctions controls, or billing, Evidence Unit, rate or spending controls. You are responsible for determining whether your particular use is lawful and properly authorized; our acceptance or validation of a request is not a legal review or authorization of that use. You must not submit restricted or regulated data that your plan or an executed addendum does not expressly permit.

7. Intellectual Property; Limited License

The Service, including its software, design, text, and the ChaosMark name and marks, is owned by SapienCX LLC or its licensors and is protected by law. We grant you a limited, revocable, non-exclusive, non-transferable license to use the Service for its intended purpose. You may not copy, modify, reverse engineer, or create derivative works except to the extent permitted by law.

8. Disclaimer of Warranties

ChaosMark is provided on an "as is" and "as available" basis. To the maximum extent permitted by law, SapienCX LLC disclaims all warranties, express or implied, including warranties of accuracy, completeness, timeliness, merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose, non-infringement, uninterrupted availability, security, error-free operation, and suitability for any particular authentication, evidentiary, journalistic, forensic, or other decision.

9. Limitation of Liability

To the maximum extent permitted by law, SapienCX LLC and its members, managers, officers, employees, contractors, affiliates, and agents shall not be liable for indirect, incidental, consequential, special, exemplary, punitive, or enhanced damages; lost profits; lost revenue; lost business opportunities; business interruption; reputational harm; data loss; or losses arising from delayed, inaccurate, incomplete, unavailable, or misinterpreted results.

TO THE EXTENT LIABILITY CANNOT LAWFULLY BE EXCLUDED, OUR TOTAL COMBINED AGGREGATE LIABILITY ARISING FROM A PAID CHAOSMARK STANDARD SELF-SERVICE PLAN SHALL NOT EXCEED THE LESSER OF (A) US $100 OR (B) THE SUBSCRIPTION FEES ACTUALLY PAID FOR THAT SPECIFIC PLAN DURING THE ONE MONTH PRECEDING THE EVENT FIRST GIVING RISE TO THE CLAIM (INCLUDING, IN A FIRST MONTH, THE FEE PAID FOR THAT MONTH). FOR NO-CHARGE SERVICES, IT SHALL NOT EXCEED US $100. FOR ANY OTHER PAID ARRANGEMENT NOT GOVERNED BY A SIGNED AGREEMENT, IT SHALL NOT EXCEED THE GREATER OF US $100 OR THE FEES ACTUALLY PAID FOR THAT ARRANGEMENT ATTRIBUTABLE TO THE ONE MONTH PRECEDING THAT EVENT. FOR EACH SPECIFIC PLAN, THIS IS ONE TOTAL COMBINED AGGREGATE CAP FOR ALL CLAIMS ARISING OUT OF OR RELATING TO THAT PLAN, NOT A SEPARATE CAP PER CLAIM, USER, FILE, TRANSACTION, RESULT, LEGAL THEORY OR INCIDENT, AND IT APPLIES REGARDLESS OF LEGAL THEORY, INCLUDING CONTRACT, TORT, NEGLIGENCE, STRICT LIABILITY, STATUTE, MISREPRESENTATION OR WARRANTY. NOTHING IN THESE TERMS RESTRICTS RIGHTS, REFUNDS, LIABILITY OR REMEDIES THAT APPLICABLE LAW DOES NOT PERMIT TO BE EXCLUDED OR LIMITED. A SEPARATELY SIGNED ENTERPRISE ORDER FORM MAY CHANGE THIS ALLOCATION ONLY TO THE EXTENT IT EXPRESSLY STATES.

10. User Indemnification

To the maximum extent permitted by applicable law, you will defend, indemnify and hold harmless SapienCX LLC and its members, managers, officers, personnel, agents, licensors and service providers from third-party claims, actions and reasonable costs (including attorneys’ fees) to the extent arising out of or relating to your Customer Content (the files, instructions and other materials you or your authorized users or agents submit), your breach of your representations or these Terms, infringement or violation of third-party rights, unlawful or unauthorized use, misrepresentation of ChaosMark findings, your instructions and your authorized users’ and agents’ conduct, or your failure to protect credentials and systems within your control.

You may not settle an indemnified claim in a way that imposes liability, restrictions or an admission on SapienCX LLC without its prior written consent. This section does not require you to indemnify SapienCX LLC for its own conduct to the extent such an obligation is prohibited by law. The limitation of our liability in section 9 does not cap your obligations under this section to the extent that is lawful and enforceable.

11. Suspension; Termination; Survival

We may suspend or terminate access to the Service at any time, including for violation of these Terms or to protect the Service. Provisions that by their nature should survive termination will survive, including intellectual property, disclaimers, limitation of liability, indemnification, governing law, and dispute resolution.

12. Force Majeure; Source Availability

We are not liable for delays or failures caused by events beyond our reasonable control. Record issuance by the hosted Service depends on third-party quantum randomness sources that may be rate-limited or unavailable; when a quantum source is unavailable, the Service may be degraded or a fingerprint may be generated from a non-quantum source, a fact that is recorded in the record. The Local Agent does not use a quantum randomness source; it uses your operating system's random number generator, and each of its records states the kind of randomness used.

13. Governing Law; Venue; Class Action Waiver

These Terms are governed by the laws of the Commonwealth of Virginia, without regard to conflict-of-law rules. Except for disputes required to be resolved by arbitration under section 14, the state and federal courts located in Virginia shall have exclusive jurisdiction over proceedings arising out of these Terms, including proceedings to seek relief permitted by section 14 or to enforce or challenge an arbitration award, and you consent to personal jurisdiction and venue in those courts, subject to any rights that applicable law makes non-excludable.

To the maximum extent permitted by law, you and SapienCX LLC agree that any dispute will be brought only on an individual basis and not as a class action, collective action, representative action, private attorney general action, or consolidated proceeding.

14. Dispute Resolution; Arbitration

Any dispute arising out of or related to ChaosMark or these Terms shall be resolved by binding arbitration administered by the American Arbitration Association under its Commercial Arbitration Rules. The seat of arbitration shall be Virginia. The arbitration shall proceed on an individual basis only, except where applicable law requires otherwise. For a consumer dispute, applicable AAA Consumer Arbitration Rules and mandatory consumer protections control over conflicting commercial rules. Nothing in these Terms excludes non-waivable consumer rights, remedies, or access to a court where the law requires it. Either party may seek temporary or preliminary injunctive relief in court to protect intellectual property, confidential information, security, or service integrity.

You may opt out of arbitration by sending written notice to tom@phase3ai.com within thirty (30) days after your first use of the Service. Your opt-out notice must include your name, email address, and a statement that you are opting out of arbitration.

15. Geographic Scope

The Service is operated from the United States. We make no representation that it is appropriate or available for use in other locations. You are responsible for compliance with local law.

16. Notices; Assignment; Entire Agreement; Severability

We may provide notices by in-product notice, posting on the website, or other reasonable electronic means. You may not assign or transfer your rights under these Terms without our prior written consent. We may assign these Terms in connection with a merger, acquisition, reorganization, sale of assets, change of control, or by operation of law. These Terms, together with the Privacy Policy, are the entire agreement between you and SapienCX LLC regarding ChaosMark and supersede prior or contemporaneous understandings on the same subject. If any provision is found unenforceable, the remaining provisions remain in full effect.

17. Changes to These Terms

We may update these Terms. The current version is marked by the effective date above. For no-charge use, continued use after an update means you accept it. For a paid plan or paid API access, a new version applies only after you affirmatively accept it, and we tell you before a renewal that would be governed by it; your earlier acceptances remain governed by the versions you accepted. We never change an accepted version after the fact.

18. Contact

Questions about these Terms: tom@phase3ai.com.