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Terms

Last updated: 5 October 2026Draft: this text will be reviewed before launch.

These are the license terms for Merceq. By installing or using Merceq, you agree to them.

Who and what

  • Merceq belongs to VagaStudio ([legal name], [address]). VagaStudio grants the license.
  • Sales are handled by [payment provider]. Payment, tax, invoices and refunds go through the provider, and its [terms of sale] apply to the purchase.
  • When you buy Merceq, you get the right to use it, not ownership of the software.

The license

  • The license is personal: one person uses it. It can be active on 2 Macs at the same time.
  • You can use Merceq for commercial work.
  • In a team, each person needs their own license.
  • To transfer your license to someone else, write to [email protected]; transfers only go through support.
  • To move from one Mac to another, use Move to another Mac… in the app. If a Mac is lost, stolen or broken, support will release it for you.

The trial

  • The trial lasts 14 days and can be started once per Mac. Starting it needs the internet once.
  • When the trial ends, only export and external plugins close. Import and culling stay open, and your clips and decisions stay where they are.

Activation

  • The first activation needs the internet once. After that Merceq works offline and never checks the license on a schedule.
  • If the license server can’t be reached, a working license isn’t affected. Only new activations, starting a trial and moving to another Mac wait until the server is back.

Updates

  • All 1.x updates are included.
  • A future major version (for example 2.0) may be a paid upgrade. The version you bought keeps working, with no time limit.
  • Updates never download on their own. Merceq only checks if you allow it, and only downloads if you ask.

Refunds

  • Within 14 days of buying, we refund you without asking why. Ask through [payment provider] or at [email protected].
  • After a refund, you need to remove the license from your Macs. Merceq can’t switch off an activated license remotely.

What you may not do

Except where the law clearly allows it, you may not:

  • copy, distribute, sell, rent or sublicense Merceq;
  • modify it, decompile it or reverse engineer it.

These limits don’t apply to the open-source components listed below.

Your data is yours

Your catalog, thumbnails, decisions, notes and exports belong to you. VagaStudio gets no rights to them, and they stay on your computer. The Privacy page says what is kept where.

Open-source components

  • Merceq uses FFmpeg 7.1 to read video. FFmpeg is licensed under the LGPL 2.1 (or any later version), is built from unmodified source, and runs as a separate program. Nothing in these terms limits your rights under the LGPL, including changing FFmpeg or replacing it with your own build.
  • FFmpeg’s source code and build script are at vagastudio.io/merceq/kaynak/. For at least 3 years you can also ask for them at [email protected], for the cost of sending them only.
  • The licenses of the other open-source components in Merceq can be read inside the app, offline, under Settings › General.
  • This software is based in part on the work of the Independent JPEG Group.

AI models

The Sense models don’t come with Merceq. When you set up Sense, they download straight from Hugging Face and GitHub, unchanged:

  • OpenAI Whisper large-v3-turbo · MIT License · © 2022 OpenAI
  • Silero VAD · MIT License · © 2020-present Silero Team
  • Google SigLIP 2 · Apache License 2.0 · Google

External plugins

External plugins you install yourself are other people’s software and come with their own licenses. Merceq runs them in a closed space with no internet access, where they only see the files they are given, but their makers are responsible for what they do. Some plugins may need their own license.

Alpha and contributor licenses

[Terms for alpha and contributor licenses: whether they are free, how long they last, whether they can be transferred, when they can be ended.]

Warranty and liability

  • Merceq is provided as is, with no promise that it will work without faults or interruptions.
  • To the extent the law allows, VagaStudio is not liable for indirect damage, including data loss. In any case, our liability is limited to what you paid for Merceq.
  • Your statutory rights as a consumer are unaffected.

Ending the license

[When a license can be ended: chargebacks, key sharing, abuse.]

Governing law

[Governing law and the competent court or consumer arbitration body.]

Contact

[email protected]