Legal

These Terms & Conditions are the agreement between you and Blinding Visuals Press ("Blinding Visuals", "we") covering artssn.com and every surface it serves — studios, image and book registration, events, stores, and print runs. By creating an account or using the platform you accept them. We wrote them to be read; if anything is unclear, ask us.

You need an account for most things here. Keep your sign-in credentials to yourself, give us accurate information, and be one person — accounts represent individual humans (organizations get their own surfaces). Your username is a unique handle; your display name is what the world reads; your pen name is the official name on your certificates and registrations. You are responsible for activity on your account.

Nothing we do ever takes your rights. Everything you create and bring here — images, writing, books — remains yours, in full. Registering a work, publishing it, or selling it through the platform does not transfer ownership of your work to us, and no clause anywhere on this platform says otherwise.

So that the platform can function, you give us the narrow permission we need to operate it: hosting, displaying, and reproducing your content to provide the services you asked for — rendering your studio, generating your certificates, printing the books and prints you sell. That permission is for operating the platform, not for our own exploitation of your work, and it ends where the service ends.

Where a deeper relationship exists — like BV publishing your book — it is governed by the standard Author Publishing Agreement below, which spells out exactly what each side gets.

Registering a work mints an IPFN: a durable registry number with a QR code, a certificate, and a public verification page, anchored to a hash of your file. It is a dated, publicly verifiable record of your work.

Be clear-eyed about what it is: an IPFN is not government copyright registration (under the Berne Convention you hold copyright automatically the moment your work is fixed — and some legal remedies, particularly in the U.S., still require official registration with the relevant copyright office). Certificate and registration metadata — the IPFN, work title, and claimant name — is public by design; that is what makes a registration verifiable.

When you register a work you are making a claim of authorship under your official name. Make it honestly. Under international copyright frameworks (including the Berne Convention) and domestic law, publication on this platform and registration of an IPFN constitute a public claiming of the work — a public attribution of copyright toward a given book or image. Claiming work that is not yours, impersonating another creator, or registering stolen work violates these terms — we will remove the registration and may close your account — and a false public claim of authorship can expose you to real legal consequences under applicable law, from false-statement and misrepresentation liability to fraud prosecution.

Everything sold on the platform is a one-time payment — no subscriptions. Payments are processed by Stripe; we never see or store your full card number. Physical goods (books, prints) are produced and fulfilled through our printing and fulfillment partners; timelines shown at checkout are estimates. If something arrives damaged or wrong, contact us and we will make it right.

Don't break the law, don't break the platform, don't harm the people on it. That includes: no infringing or stolen content, no impersonation, no harassment or hate, no attempts to breach accounts or scrape private data, and no interfering with the service's operation. We may remove content or suspend accounts that do.

You can stop using the platform at any time. We can suspend or close accounts that violate these terms. Either way, your ownership of your work is untouched — it was never ours. Public registrations are durable, append-only records by design; certificates already issued remain valid records of what was registered and when.

The platform is provided "as is." We work hard to keep it accurate and available, but we cannot promise it will always be error-free or uninterrupted, and we are not liable for indirect or consequential damages to the maximum extent the law allows. Nothing in these terms limits liability that cannot legally be limited.

These terms are governed by the laws of the United States and the State of Texas. If we change them in a way that matters, we will say so visibly — no silent edits to the deal. The current version, with its date, always lives on this page.

The minimum the platform needs to function: your account (email, names, profile), the work you register and publish, your orders and shipping details when you buy something, and minimal first-party usage records that keep the service healthy. That is the list.

We don't sell your data. We don't run third-party ad trackers, we don't feed data brokers, and we don't monetize your attention. There is no advertising machinery on this platform.

Registration metadata — your IPFN, the work's title, and the claimant (pen) name you chose — is published on public verification pages on purpose: a registration only protects you if the world can check it. Your private account details are not part of that record.

Card payments are processed by Stripe. Your card number goes to Stripe, not to us; we keep the order record (what you bought, where to ship it).

We send transactional email (receipts, shipping, account notices) and the notifications you have on. We don't sell or share your address.

You can edit your profile and names at any time, control notification email, and contact us to deactivate your account. Public registration records are durable and append-only by design — staying on the record is the product.

Our primary database runs in the European Union, and we build our data practices to GDPR standards: minimal collection (§1), no selling or brokering (§2), and access on request. We preserve your data deliberately — registrations and their certificates are durable records, independently backed up, because a verifiable claim that can quietly vanish protects no one. Payment processing (Stripe) and email delivery (Resend) are handled by their own processors under their own agreements; your card number never touches our systems (§4).

"Work" means the book composed of the Author's original photographic images and associated content, curated in collaboration with the Publisher. "Pre-order Campaign" means a promotional campaign to solicit book orders prior to publication. "List Price" is the book's regular retail price. "Author Copies" are copies made available to the Author for personal use or in-person sales. "Substantial Reuse" means any single collection containing over 51% of the images found within the Work. "Net Profit" is what remains after all direct and documented publication-related costs are deducted from gross revenue.

The Author retains full rights to the individual images included in the Work and may sell prints, edit, promote, or use them in other creative projects, including future books, provided such use does not constitute Substantial Reuse. The Author grants the Publisher an exclusive, worldwide license to publish, reproduce, distribute, promote, and sell the Work in all formats, in perpetuity.

The Author owns the rights to all individual images and text provided for the Work. The Work as a whole — its compilation, layout, design, and visual narrative — is a distinct original book owned by the Publisher. No use of individual images is allowed outside the direct promotion of the Work without the Author's express consent.

The Agreement is effective in perpetuity; rights do not revert unless agreed in writing. If the Work's Pre-order Campaign does not launch within eighteen (18) months of execution, either party may terminate with written notice and all rights revert to the Author.

The Author agrees to deliver final high-resolution files within 12 months, consult on layout, participate in the Pre-order Campaign (including promotional content featuring their likeness/voice), and promote the Work without discriminatory or hate-based language. If a mutually agreed minimum revenue for the Pre-order Campaign is not met, the Publisher is not obligated to publish; all rights revert and pre-orders are refunded.

The Publisher manages layout, editorial direction, production, distribution, and sales; ensures the Work is properly registered for copyright protection in all major markets where it is regularly sold; maintains reproduction quality consistent with the agreed proof; and notifies the Author of reprints, out-of-print status, or any transfer of publishing rights within thirty (30) days.

The Author receives fifty-five percent (55%) of Net Profit from all sales of the Work, in perpetuity, regardless of format or channel. Upon written request the Author may receive an accounting statement of publishing expenses within 180 days.

The Author may request Author Copies for events and signings; signed copies may be sold above List Price with the Publisher entitled to 49% of List Price per copy. Author Copies may not be listed on third-party websites — digital e-commerce is managed solely by the Publisher. If the Publisher ceases sale or reprinting, the Author has the right to repurchase exclusive book rights at a mutually agreed price not exceeding the pre-order campaign's gross revenue.

Breaches get written notice and a 30-day cure period before termination. Before the Pre-order Campaign the Author bears no financial responsibility on termination; during an active campaign all pre-orders are refunded with the Author indemnified; after campaign completion the Publisher fulfills all pre-orders. Termination for the Author's material misconduct forfeits royalty rights on remaining inventory.

After a successful Pre-order Campaign, Net Profit is disbursed after customer orders are fulfilled. The Author may request an Advance of 26% of anticipated profits, with the remaining 25% paid within 60 days of pre-order completion. Ongoing royalties are paid quarterly, by direct deposit or check.

With the Author's express approval, the Publisher may sell printed reproductions of individual images from the Work; the Author receives eighty-five percent (85%) of Net Profit from such Publisher print sales and may revoke this right with 30-day written notice. Nothing limits the Author's ability to sell prints through their own means.

The Agreement is governed by the laws of the United States and the State of Texas, contains the complete understanding between the parties, and may only be amended in writing signed by both parties.