Terms of Service
Effective July 16, 2026
These terms describe the rules for using Kinema, including how credits and billing work, what you own, what we expect of you, and how disputes are handled. By creating an account or using the service, you agree to them.
Who we are
Kinema is a video production service operated by Kinema Studios ("Kinema", "we", "us"), a company based in the United States with its business address at 306 W Redwood St, Ste 8076, Baltimore, MD 21201, USA. You can reach us at hello@kinema.cc. These Terms of Service ("Terms") govern your access to and use of the Kinema website, workspace, editor, APIs, and related services (together, the "Service").
Acceptance of these terms
By creating an account, accessing the workspace, purchasing credits or a subscription, or otherwise using any part of the Service, you agree to be bound by these Terms and by our Privacy Policy, which is incorporated by reference. If you use Kinema on behalf of a company or other organization, you represent that you are authorized to bind that organization, and "you" refers to that organization as well as to you individually. If you do not agree to these Terms, you must not use the Service.
Eligibility
You must be at least 16 years old and legally capable of entering into a binding contract to use Kinema. The Service is not directed to children, and we do not knowingly allow anyone under 16 to hold an account. You agree to provide accurate, current, and complete information when creating an account and to keep it up to date.
Early access
Kinema is currently offered as an early access product. New sign-ups may be placed on a waitlist until access is granted, access may be extended in limited batches at our discretion, and we may modify, pause, or revoke early access at any time. Features may change, be renamed, or be removed as the product matures, and portions of the Service may be experimental. Where we label a feature as beta, preview, or experimental, it is provided with reduced or no support commitments.
Accounts and security
You are responsible for your account, for maintaining the confidentiality of your login credentials, and for all activity that occurs under your account. Accounts are personal to you or your organization and may not be sold, transferred, or shared outside your organization. Notify us promptly at hello@kinema.cc if you suspect unauthorized access to your account. We may refuse, suspend, or reclaim accounts that violate these Terms or that create risk for us or for other users.
Plans, credits, and billing
Kinema is offered through subscription plans and prepaid credit packs, processed by our payment provider, Stripe. Subscriptions renew automatically each month or each year, depending on the term you select, until cancelled. Each billing cycle grants a credit allowance to your account; producing videos consumes credits based on the production mode, add-ons, and length of the project, and additional renders of an existing project consume a flat re-render fee (currently 100 credits). Optional recurring add-ons (for example, extra media storage) renew with their own monthly charge until you remove them. Your account ledger is the authoritative record of credit grants and consumption. One-time credit packs are available to active subscribers as top-ups. By purchasing, you authorize us and Stripe to charge your chosen payment method for all fees you incur, including renewals. If a payment fails, we may retry it and may suspend paid features until payment is completed.
Credit terms
Credits are a prepaid unit of usage. They have no cash value, are not legal tender, are non-transferable, and cannot be exchanged for money except where a refund is expressly required by law or by these Terms. Monthly plan credits granted as part of a subscription cycle reset at the start of each new cycle and do not roll over; unused plan credits at the end of a cycle are removed. Credits purchased as one-time top-up packs expire 6 months after the date of purchase; expired credits are removed from your balance and are not refundable. When your subscription ends (whether you cancel or it lapses), any remaining plan and pack credits are forfeited. Unused credits are also forfeited when your account is closed by you or terminated by us for breach of these Terms.
Pricing changes
We may change subscription prices, credit allowances, credit consumption rates, or plan features. For changes that increase your cost or materially reduce what your plan includes, we will give you at least 30 days notice by email or in the product, and the change will take effect at your next billing cycle. If you do not agree with a change, you may cancel before it takes effect.
Taxes
Prices are stated exclusive of taxes unless indicated otherwise. You are responsible for any applicable sales tax, VAT, GST, or similar taxes and duties associated with your purchase, which will be added at checkout where we are required to collect them.
Cancellation
You may cancel your subscription at any time from your account settings or the billing portal. Cancellation stops future renewals; your plan, access, and remaining credits stay in place until the end of the billing period you have already paid for, after which paid features end. When the period ends, your monthly credits and any top-up credit packs are forfeited, and your videos and projects are scheduled for permanent deletion after a 30-day grace period during which you may resubscribe to restore them. We do not provide partial refunds for the remainder of a billing period, except as described in the sections on refunds and on EU and UK consumer rights, or where required by law.
Refunds
Except as required by applicable law or as expressly stated in these Terms, all fees are final and non-refundable, and consumed credits are non-refundable in all cases. This reflects that producing a video incurs immediate, unrecoverable computation and licensing costs on our side the moment generation begins. If you believe you were charged in error, contact hello@kinema.cc within 30 days of the charge and we will review the request in good faith. Please contact us before initiating a chargeback; unwarranted chargebacks may result in suspension of your account pending resolution.
EU and UK consumers: 14-day right of withdrawal
If you are a consumer in the European Union or the United Kingdom, you have a statutory right to withdraw from a distance purchase within 14 days without giving a reason. For digital services and digital content such as Kinema subscriptions and credits, that right is qualified in an important way: by completing your purchase you expressly request that we begin supplying the service immediately, and you acknowledge that once you begin consuming what you bought (for example, by spending credits to generate, source, or render a video), you lose the right of withdrawal to the extent of that consumption. In practice this means: if you withdraw within 14 days of purchase and have not consumed any credits from that purchase, you will receive a full refund; if you have consumed part of the purchase, any refund will be reduced in proportion to the credits consumed; and credits that have been spent are not refundable. To exercise this right, email hello@kinema.cc within 14 days of your purchase with a clear statement that you wish to withdraw, along with the email address on your account. Refunds are issued to the original payment method within 14 days of a valid withdrawal. Nothing in this section limits any statutory rights that cannot be waived under the law of your country of residence.
Your content
You retain all ownership rights in the briefs, scripts, prompts, voiceovers, footage, images, and other material you upload or provide to the Service ("Your Content"). You grant Kinema a limited, worldwide, non-exclusive, royalty-free license to host, store, reproduce, process, transmit, and display Your Content solely as needed to operate the Service, deliver the features you request, and maintain backups. This license ends when you delete the relevant content or close your account, except for copies held in routine backups or as required by law. You represent and warrant that you own or have secured all rights necessary for Your Content and that it does not violate any law or any third-party right.
Likeness and voice
If you upload media containing a real, identifiable person, including your own or another person's face, body, or voice (for example, talking-head footage or a voice recording), you represent that every identifiable person has given you explicit consent to use their likeness and voice in content produced with Kinema. You must not use the Service to impersonate any person, to depict a real person in a false or misleading way, or to create synthetic media of a real person without that person's consent.
AI outputs and ownership
Subject to these Terms and payment of the applicable fees, Kinema assigns to you all right, title, and interest it may hold in the video outputs generated for you, to the maximum extent such rights exist under applicable law. You should be aware of the inherent properties of AI-generated material: outputs may be inaccurate or outdated, may unintentionally resemble other works including works generated for other users, and may be partly or wholly ineligible for copyright protection depending on your jurisdiction. Similar or identical outputs may be produced for other users from similar inputs, and no exclusivity is promised over styles, formats, or facts. You are solely responsible for reviewing outputs for accuracy, rights clearance, licensing, and legal compliance before you publish or commercially exploit them. Nothing in the Service constitutes legal advice.
Third-party media and services
Projects may incorporate stock footage, images, and other media sourced from third-party providers (for example, Pexels and Wikimedia Commons), and the Service relies on third-party AI and infrastructure providers to plan, source, voice, score, generate presenter avatars for, and render projects (for example, ElevenLabs for narration and HeyGen for avatars). Third-party media remains subject to the license terms of its source, and while the Service is designed to select media whose licenses permit commercial reuse, you are responsible for verifying that the final video complies with the license terms of the media it contains before publishing it commercially. Your use of any platform you publish to (for example, YouTube or TikTok) is governed by that platform's own policies, including any rules requiring disclosure of AI-generated content, and complying with them is your responsibility.
API keys
Certain features let you optionally connect an API key from a third-party service (for example, a HeyGen API key) to your brand profile so that those features run on your own third-party account ("BYO keys"). By adding a BYO key you represent and warrant that the account and key are yours or that you are authorized to use them, and that your use of the third-party service through Kinema complies with that service's own terms. BYO keys are write-only: we encrypt them at rest, never display them to anyone (including our own staff) after you save them, never write them to logs, and use them solely to make the API calls needed to fulfil the requests you make in the Service; you can replace or remove a key at any time from your brand profile. Usage made with your key is billed by the third party directly to your third-party account under its own pricing, and features that run on your key are not charged Kinema's corresponding usage fees. YOU USE BYO KEYS AT YOUR OWN RISK: to the maximum extent permitted by law, Kinema is not liable for any loss or damages arising out of or relating to your BYO key or the associated third-party account, including third-party charges (whether expected or not), exhaustion of quotas or wallets, unauthorized use, compromise, leak, interception, or other misuse of the key, however occurring, or suspension, termination, pricing changes, or any other decision the third party makes about your account. Your sole and exclusive remedy for any concern relating to a BYO key is to remove it from the Service and rotate it with the third party, which we recommend doing periodically as a matter of good hygiene. The indemnification section of these Terms applies to claims arising from your BYO keys and connected third-party accounts. Nothing in this section limits liability that cannot be limited by law.
Acceptable use
You agree not to use the Service to: violate any applicable law or regulation; create or distribute content that is illegal, defamatory, fraudulent, or deceptive; create synthetic media, deepfakes, or manipulated content depicting a real person without that person's explicit consent; produce content that sexualizes or endangers minors in any form, which we will report to the relevant authorities; harass, threaten, or incite violence or hatred against any person or group; deliberately produce or spread disinformation, including deceptive political or election-related content; infringe any intellectual property, privacy, or publicity right; upload malware or any harmful code; probe, scan, overload, disrupt, or attempt to gain unauthorized access to the Service or its infrastructure; circumvent usage limits, credit accounting, access gates, or security measures; scrape, harvest, or bulk-download Service content or data; resell, sublicense, or provide the Service to third parties as a service bureau without our written agreement; use the Service to build or benchmark a competing product; or violate United States export control or sanctions laws. We may investigate suspected violations and may remove content, suspend accounts, and cooperate with law enforcement where appropriate.
Copyright complaints
We respect intellectual property rights and respond to notices submitted under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) and equivalent laws. To report infringement, email hello@kinema.cc with: identification of the copyrighted work; identification and location of the allegedly infringing material; your name, address, telephone number, and email; a statement of your good-faith belief that the use is not authorized by the rights holder, its agent, or the law; a statement, under penalty of perjury, that the information in your notice is accurate and that you are the rights holder or authorized to act for them; and your physical or electronic signature. We may remove or disable access to material identified in a valid notice. If you believe material you posted was removed in error, you may submit a counter-notice with the elements required by the DMCA, and we may restore the material as the DMCA provides. We terminate the accounts of repeat infringers.
Kinema intellectual property
The Service, including its software, models, prompts, interface, design, branding, documentation, and all improvements to them, is owned by Kinema or its licensors and is protected by intellectual property laws. These Terms grant you a limited, revocable, non-exclusive, non-transferable right to use the Service for its intended purpose; no other rights are granted, whether by implication or otherwise. You may not copy, modify, distribute, reverse engineer, decompile, or create derivative works of the Service except to the extent a law expressly permits it notwithstanding this restriction. If you send us feedback, suggestions, or ideas, you grant us a perpetual, irrevocable, royalty-free right to use them without restriction or obligation to you.
Suspension and termination
You may stop using Kinema and close your account at any time. We may suspend or terminate your access, with notice where practicable, if you materially breach these Terms, if your use creates legal exposure or risk of harm to us, to other users, or to third parties, if required by law, or after an extended period of inactivity on a free account. Upon termination, your right to use the Service ends immediately, unused credits are forfeited as described in the credit terms, and we may delete Your Content and outputs in accordance with our Privacy Policy, subject to legal retention requirements. Sections of these Terms that by their nature should survive termination (including ownership, disclaimers, limitations of liability, indemnification, and dispute resolution) survive.
Service changes and availability
We work to keep the Service available and performant, but we do not promise uninterrupted or error-free operation and we do not offer a service level agreement at this time. We may perform maintenance, experience downtime, throttle capacity during peak load, or modify or discontinue features. Where we discontinue the Service entirely, we will give reasonable advance notice and, for any prepaid period we can no longer serve, a pro-rata refund.
Warranty disclaimer
To the maximum extent permitted by law, the Service is provided "as is" and "as available" without warranties of any kind, whether express, implied, or statutory, including implied warranties of merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose, title, and non-infringement, and any warranties arising from course of dealing or trade usage. We do not warrant that the Service will meet your requirements, that outputs will be accurate, original, or fit for any purpose, or that the Service will be secure, uninterrupted, or error-free. Some jurisdictions do not allow the exclusion of implied warranties, so parts of this section may not apply to you; where they cannot be excluded, implied warranties are limited to the minimum scope and duration the law allows.
Limitation of liability
To the maximum extent permitted by law: (a) neither Kinema nor its suppliers will be liable for any indirect, incidental, special, consequential, exemplary, or punitive damages, or for lost profits, revenues, savings, data, goodwill, or business opportunity, even if advised of the possibility; and (b) the total aggregate liability of Kinema for all claims arising out of or relating to the Service or these Terms will not exceed the greater of the amounts you paid to Kinema in the 12 months before the event giving rise to the claim or 100 US dollars. These limits do not apply to liability that cannot be limited by law, including liability for death or personal injury caused by negligence, fraud, or willful misconduct. If you are a consumer in a jurisdiction whose law grants you mandatory remedies, nothing in this section limits those remedies.
Indemnification
You agree to defend, indemnify, and hold harmless Kinema and its officers, employees, contractors, and agents from and against any claims, damages, liabilities, costs, and expenses (including reasonable attorneys' fees) arising out of or related to: Your Content; your use of the Service or of the outputs, including your publication of them; your violation of these Terms; or your violation of any law or any third-party right, including intellectual property, publicity, and privacy rights. We will notify you of any such claim and may participate in its defense with counsel of our choosing.
Dispute resolution and arbitration
Most concerns can be resolved quickly by emailing hello@kinema.cc, and you and Kinema agree to try in good faith to resolve any dispute informally for at least 30 days before starting formal proceedings. Except for the carve-outs below, any dispute arising out of or relating to these Terms or the Service that cannot be resolved informally will be resolved by binding individual arbitration administered by the American Arbitration Association under its Consumer Arbitration Rules, rather than in court. The arbitration will be conducted in English, remotely or in a mutually convenient location, and judgment on the award may be entered in any court of competent jurisdiction. Carve-outs: either party may bring an individual claim in small claims court, and either party may seek injunctive or equitable relief in court for infringement or misuse of intellectual property or for unauthorized access to the Service. CLASS ACTION WAIVER: you and Kinema each waive any right to participate in a class action, collective action, or representative proceeding; disputes will be arbitrated or litigated only on an individual basis. Arbitration opt-out: you may opt out of this arbitration agreement, without penalty, by emailing hello@kinema.cc within 30 days of first accepting these Terms with your account email and a clear statement that you opt out of arbitration. If you are a consumer in the EU or UK, this arbitration section applies to you only to the extent permitted by the mandatory law of your country of residence, and you retain any right to bring proceedings in your local courts and to use available alternative dispute resolution bodies.
Governing law
These Terms and any dispute arising out of them are governed by the laws of the State of Maryland, United States, without regard to its conflict-of-law rules, and, where arbitration does not apply, the state and federal courts located in Maryland will have exclusive jurisdiction. If you are a consumer residing in the EU or UK, you also benefit from any mandatory provisions of the consumer protection law of your country of residence, and nothing in these Terms deprives you of that protection or of your right to bring claims in your local courts where that law grants it.
General
These Terms, together with the Privacy Policy and any order or plan details presented at checkout, are the entire agreement between you and Kinema regarding the Service and supersede any prior agreements on that subject. If any provision is found unenforceable, it will be enforced to the maximum extent permissible and the remaining provisions will remain in full effect. Our failure to enforce a provision is not a waiver of it. You may not assign these Terms without our prior written consent; we may assign them in connection with a merger, acquisition, reorganization, or sale of assets, and they bind and benefit permitted successors and assigns. Neither party is liable for delay or failure caused by events beyond its reasonable control, except for your payment obligations. Notices to you may be given by email to your account address or in the product; notices to us should be sent to hello@kinema.cc.
Changes to these terms
We may update these Terms as the product, the law, and our business evolve. When we make material changes, we will update the effective date below and notify you in the product or by email at least 14 days before the changes take effect, except for changes required by law or addressing new features, which may take effect immediately. Your continued use of the Service after the effective date of an update constitutes acceptance of the revised Terms; if you do not agree, stop using the Service and, if applicable, cancel your subscription before the changes take effect.
Contact
Questions about these Terms can be sent to hello@kinema.cc, or by mail to Kinema Studios, 306 W Redwood St, Ste 8076, Baltimore, MD 21201, USA.