Terms of Sale and Use of Bernard Review

Version 1.0 — effective on 12 November 2026.

These terms (the "Terms") are offered by AArts Lab, a French SAS (simplified joint-stock company) with a share capital of €1,117.60, whose head office is at 151 Impasse du Verneguier, 13300 Salon-de-Provence, France, registered with the Salon-de-Provence trade and companies register (RCS) under number 885 393 827, EU VAT number FR35885393827, reachable at Show the address ("AArts Lab"). Bernard Review and Bernard Engine are trade names used by AArts Lab.

The Service is sold to businesses only (article 3). This is a translation, for information. The French version is the reference text: between businesses, it prevails in case of difference (article 27). A Spanish version also exists.

Article 1 — Purpose and scope

Bernard Review is made of two separate things:

• the Player, a free and open-source desktop application that runs on the user's machine (article 4);
• the Service, that is the paid online features: remote review sessions through AArts Lab's servers, and the studio's console (article 5).

These Terms set out:

• the terms of sale of the Service (subscriptions, session passes, trial, discounts), which apply to the Customer;
• the terms of use of the Service, which apply to the Customer, its Members and its Guests.

The contract is made of the following documents, in this order of priority in case of conflict:

1. for the Enterprise plan, the signed order form or contract and its schedules (including, where agreed, the service level commitment and the self-hosted relay licence);
2. the data processing agreement (in French);
3. these Terms;
4. the cancellation and refund policy (in French), which details these Terms and cannot depart from them;
5. the Pricing Page, as in force on the day of the order or of the renewal.

The Customer's own purchasing terms do not apply unless AArts Lab agrees in writing. These Terms are accepted in the Console, as described in article 3.

Article 2 — Definitions

• Customer: the business (article 3) that opens a Studio and pays for the Service.
• Studio: the Customer's space in the Console, to which its Members, plan, passes and invoices belong.
• Member: a person the Customer has added to its Studio, by e-mail address, with a role (article 6).
• Pilot: the Member who opens and leads an Online Session. A Pilot leads one Session at a time.
• Pilot Seat: the right, paid for in the plan, to make a Member a Pilot.
• Guest: a person a Pilot invites to an Online Session. A Guest pays nothing and has no account.
• Player: the Bernard Review desktop application, free, open source (MIT licence), running on the user's machine.
• Online Session: a review session opened by a Pilot and going through AArts Lab's servers (the "relay"), to bring remote Guests together.
• Console: the web interface https://review.bernardengine.com/console/, where the Customer manages its Studio, Members, plan, passes, invoices and access log.
• Service: all the online features described in article 5. The Player used on its own, locally or on the studio's network, is not part of the Service.
• Subscription: the Pilote or Studio plan, paid monthly or yearly.
• Session Pass: the right to open one 4-hour Online Session, bought singly (article 9).
• Customer Content: everything the Customer, its Members and its Guests send through the Service: broadcast images and video, voice, chat messages and voice notes, annotations, review notes and attached images, session names, Guests' names and addresses.
• Pricing Page: the page https://bernardreview.com/pricing.html, which shows the plans and their current prices.

Article 3 — Service for businesses only

The Service is designed for animation, visual effects and post-production studios, and for independent professionals. It is sold to businesses only: companies, sole traders and freelancers, schools and associations, acting for the purposes of their trade, business, craft or profession, or of their mission. It is not sold to consumers, that is to individuals acting for purposes outside any such activity.

In the Console, when the Studio is created, and then for the Studio's owner at each new version of these Terms, the person ticks two required boxes: "I accept the terms of sale and use" and "I act for the purposes of my professional activity". The accepted version of the Terms, the date and that person's e-mail address are recorded. No purchase is possible until that acceptance and that statement are recorded for the current version of the Terms. By placing an order, the buyer confirms that this statement is accurate.

The person who accepts these Terms or places an order acts in the Customer's name and states that they have the authority to bind it. At checkout, the Customer gives its EU VAT number if it has one; AArts Lab may ask for its company registration number or equivalent evidence. If it turns out that a Studio was opened by a consumer, AArts Lab may refuse the order or close the Studio; it then refunds the sums paid for the unused period.

Article 4 — The Player, free and open source

The Player is free. It can be downloaded without an account from https://bernardreview.com. It is open-source software released under the MIT licence: its use, copying, modification and redistribution are governed by that licence, whose text comes with every version, and not by these Terms.

Used on its own, locally or on the studio's network, the Player sends AArts Lab no images, no notes and no review data. It checks the Bernard Review site to know whether a new version exists. It sends its technical log to AArts Lab's support only when the user asks for it (Help > Send log menu); that log is kept 90 days at most, then erased.

As the MIT licence provides, the Player is supplied "as is", without warranty. AArts Lab fixes and improves it regularly, without any committed schedule.

Article 5 — The online Service

Depending on the plan, the Service makes it possible, in particular:

• to open Online Sessions from the Player and invite Guests through a link, with or without a session password and, as an option, a one-time code sent to the Guest's e-mail address;
• to broadcast the Player's picture to Guests (live video), and to talk by voice, by chat (messages, reactions, voice notes), by annotations and by review notes;
• to show a personal watermark on each Guest's screen (for instance their name, e-mail address, IP address, the time, the session name, a free text), as set by the Pilot;
• to view an access log of the Sessions (who connected, when, from which IP address) and, for the plans that include it, to export it;
• to manage the Studio in the Console, to sign in with an e-mail code or with the studio's single sign-on (SSO), and to create API keys.

What the Service does not do: it records neither the video, nor the voice, nor the chat, nor the annotations; it does not store the Customer's media files, which stay on the Customer's machines (article 17).

AArts Lab may change the Service, in particular for security reasons, without substantially reducing the essential features of the subscribed plan during the current period.

Article 6 — Account, Members, roles and Pilot Seats

The Customer creates its Studio in the Console with an e-mail address and adds its Members to it, each with a role:

Pilot Seats are assigned to named Members by the owner or an admin, who may reassign them. A Pilot Seat must not be shared between several people. Guests do not count as Seats: their number per Session depends on the plan (article 7).

The Customer is responsible:

• for choosing its Members and their roles, and for removing people who should no longer have access;
• for keeping access means confidential (e-mail addresses, codes received, API keys, invitation links, session passwords);
• for actions taken with those access means, unless AArts Lab is at fault;
• if it uses SSO, for the setup of its identity provider and of the allowed e-mail domains.

The Customer informs AArts Lab without delay of any unauthorised use it notices.

Article 7 — Plans and prices

The plans, their limits and their prices are those of the Pricing Page on the day of the order. For information, on the date of these Terms, in euros excluding taxes:

The personal watermark is available on every plan.

Price changes. AArts Lab may change its prices. A new price applies to current Subscriptions at their next renewal, provided it was announced to the Customer by e-mail at least 30 days before that renewal. A Customer who refuses the new price cancels before the renewal, at no cost (article 14). The founder price freeze (article 10) remains reserved.

Article 8 — Free trial

A new Studio gets a free 14-day trial, without any payment method, with the Studio plan's features for 2 Pilots. One trial only is granted per mailbox (variants such as name+tag@ count as the same mailbox) and per SSO domain.

At the end of the trial, Online Sessions are no longer possible until a plan is subscribed to or a pass is bought. Nothing is charged automatically at the end of the trial. Local use of the Player is not affected.

Article 9 — Session Pass

A Session Pass opens one Online Session of at most 4 hours, with at most 10 Guests. It is valid 12 months from purchase; a pass not used within that time expires. A Session opened with a pass closes automatically after 4 hours. A pass is used as soon as the Session opens, even if it ends earlier. Unused passes are lost when the Studio is closed; the Console shows their number before the owner confirms the closure. An unused pass is refundable on request within 14 days of purchase.

Article 10 — Discounts: schools and associations, founder offer

Schools and associations rate (−50%). Schools and associations may ask, from the Console, for a 50% discount on the Pilote and Studio plans. The request gives the institution, its kind, its country and its website. AArts Lab checks the request by hand and may ask for evidence; it may refuse it, giving the reason. Once granted, the discount is applied by a coupon at checkout (and to the current Subscription from its next renewal). It does not lead to a refund of payments made before it was granted. AArts Lab may withdraw it if the conditions are no longer met, from the next renewal, after informing the Customer.

Founder offer (−20%). Studios that took part in the Bernard Review beta programme and that AArts Lab has designated as founders get the founder offer if they subscribe to a yearly Subscription (Pilote or Studio) within 60 days of the entry into force of this version 1.0 of the Terms:

• a 20% discount on the price of that yearly Subscription, applied automatically at checkout, with no code to type;
• the discount is kept at every renewal, as long as the yearly Subscription stays active without interruption (this is what "for life" means in the offer); it also applies to added Pilots and to a move from the Pilote plan to the Studio plan, as long as the Subscription stays yearly;
• the price before discount of that Subscription is frozen for 3 years from subscription: a price increase (article 7) does not apply to it during that time;
• the offer ends if the Subscription is cancelled, switched to monthly payment, or interrupted by a payment failure not settled within the grace period (article 15);
• it does not combine with the schools and associations rate: the larger discount applies.

Article 11 — Order and payment

Pilote and Studio plans, Session Pass. Orders are placed from the Console, once these Terms are accepted and the statement of article 3 is recorded. Before paying, the Customer sees a summary of the order (plan, period, number of Pilots, price, taxes) and can correct it. Payment is handled by Stripe (Stripe Payments Europe, Limited, Ireland), on its checkout page: card, SEPA direct debit, Apple Pay or Google Pay. AArts Lab neither sees nor keeps card or account numbers. The order is final when Stripe confirms the payment; access opens on that confirmation. For a SEPA direct debit, the confirmation may take a few business days.

Subscriptions are payable in advance, at the start of each period (month or year). By choosing SEPA direct debit, the Customer signs a mandate in favour of AArts Lab through Stripe.

The Customer changes plan, number of Pilots or payment method, and views its invoices, in the Stripe billing portal reached from the Console. Moving to a more expensive plan or to more Pilots takes effect at once, and the difference is charged pro rata for the remaining period. Moving to a cheaper plan, to fewer Pilots or to a shorter period takes effect at the end of the current period and gives rise to no refund.

Enterprise plan. It is subject to a quote and a signed order form or contract. It is invoiced and paid by bank transfer, 30 days from the invoice date unless otherwise agreed, within the limits of article L. 441-10 of the French Commercial Code.

Article 12 — Invoices and VAT

Invoices are issued by Stripe in AArts Lab's name and made available in the Console and by e-mail; Enterprise invoices are issued by AArts Lab with its invoicing software (Tiime). The Customer agrees to receive its invoices electronically.

Prices on the Pricing Page exclude taxes. VAT is computed by Stripe Tax according to the Customer's situation:

• Customer established in France: French VAT at the standard rate of 20%;
• VAT-registered Customer established in another EU member state, with a valid VAT number: invoice without VAT, reverse charge by the Customer;
• other situations: according to the applicable rules.

The Customer gives an accurate and current VAT number; otherwise French VAT may be applied.

Article 13 — Term and automatic renewal

The monthly Subscription is concluded for one month, the yearly Subscription for one year. Each renews automatically for the same length, at the current price (article 7), unless cancelled before the end of the current period (article 14). The registered payment method is charged at the start of each new period.

Article 14 — Cancellation by the Customer and refunds

The Customer cancels at any time, at no cost and without giving reasons, online: "Manage billing" button of the Console, then cancellation in the Stripe portal; the owner may also close the Studio from the Console, after confirmation. Cancellation takes effect at the end of the current period; the Service stays available until then.

The refund rules are as follows; the cancellation and refund policy (in French) details them:

• a month that has started is not refunded;
• a year paid in advance is not refunded pro rata; the Service stays available until the end of the paid year;
• an unused pass is refundable on request within 14 days of purchase;
• the Customer is refunded pro rata for the unused period if it cancels because it refuses a change to these Terms (article 26), in case of prolonged force majeure (article 24) or of a serious breach by AArts Lab.

A business buying the Service does not benefit from the right of withdrawal that the French Consumer Code gives consumers.

Article 15 — Late payment and suspension

Failed Subscription payment. If a payment fails, Stripe may retry it automatically. The Customer has a grace period of 7 days from the failure, during which the Service stays available. After that, opening new Online Sessions is blocked until payment. Local use of the Player is not affected.

Penalties. Under article L. 441-10 of the French Commercial Code, any sum unpaid when due bears, automatically and without prior reminder, late payment penalties at the interest rate applied by the European Central Bank to its most recent refinancing operation plus 10 percentage points, and a fixed recovery fee of €40 (article D. 441-5). If the recovery costs actually incurred exceed that amount, AArts Lab may claim further compensation on evidence.

A SEPA direct debit disputed or rejected without a legitimate reason is treated as a payment failure.

Suspension for other reasons. AArts Lab may suspend all or part of the Service, without delay and for as long as needed, in case of a threat to the Service's security, manifestly unlawful use or an order from an authority. It informs the Customer, unless the law or the authority forbids it.

Article 16 — Service level, maintenance and support

AArts Lab uses reasonable means to keep the Service available and working properly (best-efforts obligation). No availability rate is guaranteed for the Pilote and Studio plans and the Session Pass; no service level agreement (SLA) is given outside an Enterprise contract that expressly provides one.

The quality of an Online Session also depends on factors AArts Lab does not control: the network of the Customer and of the Guests, firewalls, browser, workstation. AArts Lab publishes the list of ports and addresses to allow on the page for studios' IT teams (https://bernardreview.com/it.html).

Maintenance. The Service may be interrupted for maintenance. Planned work is done preferably outside working hours in Europe and announced in advance when possible; urgent work (security, outage) may be done without notice.

Support. By e-mail to Show the address, in French or English, on business days and hours in France, with no guaranteed response time. Requests from Studio plan Customers are handled with priority.

Enterprise plan. A service level commitment (availability, response times, possible penalties) may be agreed in the Enterprise contract; it then prevails over this article.

Article 17 — Customer Content and how the relay works

Customer Content stays the Customer's. It remains the property of the Customer or of its rights holders. AArts Lab acquires no right in it; it processes it only to provide the Service, for the strictly necessary time, and never uses it for any other purpose (no advertising, no model training, no demonstration).

The relay passes things on; it does not keep them. In the current version of the Service:

• video, voice, chat (messages, reactions, voice notes), annotations and review notes go through the relay and the video server in memory, for the time of transmission, without being recorded; no recording service is installed;
• the Customer's media files are not sent to AArts Lab: they stay on its machines. Shots sent through secure distribution go from one Player to another, end-to-end encrypted; the relay carries only their signalling and, when a direct connection is impossible, encrypted data it cannot read;
• images attached to a review note, when the feature is on, are kept on the server for the time of the review only: erased when the Session closes, and at the latest 12 hours after upload;
• the Service keeps the organisational and security data described in the privacy policy (in French): in particular the access log and the event log (90 days), session rows (made anonymous 12 months after the end), billing data (invoices 10 years). Erased data may remain up to 15 days in the encrypted backups.

The Pilot's Player and the Guests' browsers may keep a local copy of some items (for instance the notes): that copy is the Customer's matter.

Article 18 — Confidentiality

Studios' images. AArts Lab knows that the images shown in Sessions are often confidential and subject to the security requirements of the studio's own clients. Accordingly:

• exchanges are encrypted in transit (TLS; video and voice by WebRTC's encryption); they are not end-to-end encrypted: they are decrypted in the video server's memory for the time of transmission, without being recorded (article 17);
• AArts Lab staff join a Session only when invited by the Customer, and never access Customer Content for any purpose other than providing the Service or handling a request from the Customer;
• the people at AArts Lab who have access to the servers are bound by confidentiality.

Mutual obligation. Each party keeps confidential the non-public information of the other party it learns in connection with the contract, in particular Customer Content, projects shown in Sessions, commercial terms and technical and security information about the Service. It uses it only to perform the contract and discloses it only to people who need it and are bound by the same obligation. This obligation does not cover information that is public through no fault of the receiving party, already known to it, or whose disclosure is required by law or by an authority. It lasts for the contract and 5 years after its end.

The Customer may ask for a non-disclosure agreement specific to its productions; it then prevails over this article.

AArts Lab names the Customer as a reference only with its written consent.

Article 19 — Acceptable use (Members and Guests)

The Customer uses the Service in accordance with the law and these Terms, and is answerable for its Members and Guests. It is solely responsible for Customer Content and for the choice of the people it invites. It warrants that it holds the rights needed to show Customer Content to its Guests, including towards its own clients (non-disclosure agreements, production security rules).

It is forbidden:

• to broadcast unlawful content (in particular infringing, defamatory, child sexual abuse material, or content inciting hatred or violence);
• to infringe the rights of third parties, in particular their privacy;
• to try to access the Service, other Studios or AArts Lab's systems without authorisation, to get around their limits (number of Pilots or Guests, pass duration, single trial), or to disrupt their operation;
• to resell the Service or make it available to third parties other than by inviting Guests to Sessions, without written consent;
• to use the Service to send unsolicited messages.

The Customer informs its Guests of the processing of data that concerns them (in particular the personal watermark and the access log), as the data processing agreement provides.

Guests. Guests join a Session through the link the Pilot sends them; they create no account and pay nothing. By joining a Session, the Guest accepts the following rules, shown on screen with a link to these terms:

• use the Session only for the review they were invited to;
• respect the confidentiality of the content shown and the studio's instructions;
• not pass their invitation link, password or code to anyone else;
• not capture, record or share the Session's images, sounds or messages, unless the studio allows it;
• know that their name, e-mail address, IP address and the time may be shown on their screen (personal watermark) and that their connection is written to the studio's access log.

The Pilot may at any time revoke a Session's invitations (connected Guests are then disconnected) or close the Session.

AArts Lab does not check Customer Content beforehand. If it receives notice of manifestly unlawful content in the form required by law, it may suspend the Session or the account concerned.

Article 20 — Intellectual property and licences

Player: open-source software. The Player is released under the MIT licence; its source code is public. The MIT licence does not cover the names "Bernard Review" and "Bernard Engine" or their logos.

Relay and Console: closed software. The Service's software (relay, session server, Console, back office, related services), its documentation and its graphic elements belong to AArts Lab or its licensors; their source code is not published. AArts Lab grants the Customer, for the term of the contract, a personal, non-exclusive and non-transferable right to use the Service for its needs, within the limits of its plan. No other right is granted; in particular, the Customer does not copy, decompile or resell the Service, except where the law allows. Third-party components of the Service remain under their own licences.

Feedback. The Customer may make suggestions about the Service; AArts Lab may use them freely, without compensation, without reusing any confidential information of the Customer.

Article 21 — Personal data

AArts Lab processes the personal data of Members and Guests as described in the privacy policy (in French):

• as controller for account management, billing, Service security, abuse prevention and support;
• as processor for the Customer for Session data (Guests, access log, watermark, relayed chat and voice), under the data processing agreement (in French), which is part of the contract.

The Service's data is hosted in the European Union (Germany). On personal data, the privacy policy prevails over these Terms.

Article 22 — Security

AArts Lab applies the security measures described in schedule 3 of the data processing agreement (encrypted exchanges, secrets stored as hashes, one-time codes, SSO, access log, encrypted backups). The Customer, for its part, protects its workstations, access means and invitation links, and chooses each Session's protection level (password, e-mail code, watermark).

No measure removes all risk: a Guest may, for instance, photograph their screen. The personal watermark deters leaks and helps trace their origin; it does not prevent them.

Article 23 — Liability

Each party is liable for damage caused to the other by its proven breaches of the contract.

AArts Lab is not liable:

• for indirect damage, such as loss of revenue, customers, data not entrusted to the Service or opportunity, or damage to reputation;
• for damage resulting from Customer Content, from the behaviour of Members or Guests (including a Guest capturing or sharing content), from a misconfiguration or from a fault of the Customer;
• for interruptions caused by the networks and equipment of the Customer, the Guests or third parties.

Except for personal injury, gross negligence or wilful misconduct, or any contrary legal provision, AArts Lab's total liability towards the Customer, all events combined, is limited to the amount excluding taxes paid by the Customer for the Service during the 12 months before the event giving rise to the claim. Any claim by the Customer must be brought within one year from the day it learned of that event.

AArts Lab holds professional liability insurance with Orus.

Article 24 — Force majeure

Neither party is liable for a failure due to force majeure within the meaning of article 1218 of the French Civil Code, in particular a general outage of networks or of the host not attributable to the party concerned, a large-scale cyberattack despite reasonable security measures, or a decision of an authority. The prevented party informs the other without delay. If the impediment lasts more than 30 days, either party may terminate the contract in writing, without compensation; sums paid in advance for the period not supplied are refunded pro rata.

Article 25 — Termination by AArts Lab and end of the contract

AArts Lab may terminate:

• for convenience, at the end of the current period only, informing the Customer by e-mail at least 30 days before;
• for a serious breach by the Customer (persistent non-payment, use forbidden by article 19), 15 days after a formal notice left without effect, or without delay if the breach endangers the security of the Service or of third parties.

Effects. At the end of the contract, Online Sessions are no longer possible; local use of the Player goes on, free of charge. When the Studio is closed from the Console, its data is erased 30 days after the end of the paid period, except invoices (privacy policy, section on the closure of a studio). During those 30 days, the Studio's owner can still sign in to the Console, read-only, and export the Studio's data (ZIP archive of members, Sessions, access log, event log, invoices, passes and API keys, without secrets); that export is also available throughout the contract.

Article 26 — Changes to these Terms

AArts Lab may change these Terms. The new version is notified to the Customer by e-mail and in the Console at least 30 days before it takes effect; it applies to the following period, and the Console asks the Studio's owner to accept it. A Customer who refuses it may cancel before it takes effect; for a yearly Subscription, it is then refunded pro rata for the unused period. A change required by law, or with no adverse effect on the Customer, may apply sooner. The applicable Terms are those accepted at the order or at the last renewal.

Article 27 — Miscellaneous

• Evidence: the Service's and Stripe's computer records (orders, payments, acceptance of these Terms, logs) are proof between the parties, unless proven otherwise.
• Subcontracting: AArts Lab may entrust part of the Service to subcontractors (in particular hosting, payment and e-mail delivery), for whom it remains answerable.
• Assignment: the Customer may not assign the contract without AArts Lab's consent. AArts Lab may assign it to a company taking over the business, informing the Customer.
• Notices: by e-mail, to the Studio owner's address for the Customer and to Show the address for AArts Lab.
• Severability, no waiver: a void clause does not void the others; not exercising a right does not waive it.
• Language: these Terms are written in French; they are translated into English and Spanish for information; between businesses, in case of difference, the French version prevails.

Article 28 — Governing law and disputes

These Terms are governed by French law.

Complaints. Any complaint is first sent in writing to Show the address. The parties seek an amicable solution for 30 days from the complaint.

Failing an amicable agreement, any dispute about the formation, performance or end of the contract falls under the exclusive jurisdiction of the commercial court of Salon-de-Provence (France), or of the court that succeeds it, including in case of several defendants or third-party claims.