License Terms

Effective 4 August 2026 · Williams Instruments · Côte Saint-Luc, Quebec, Canada

In one line: you are buying a perpetual license to use SHAPR on the Macs you personally use, for any work including commercial work, and the app is a measuring tool whose readings you should confirm before you rely on them for a delivery.

1. The agreement

This is an agreement between you and Williams Instruments ("we"). By installing or using SHAPR ("the Software") you accept it. If you do not, do not use the Software; if you have paid, ask for a refund under our refund policy.

2. What you may do

Your license is perpetual, worldwide, non-exclusive and non-transferable. Under it you may:

Install and use the Software on any Mac that you personally own or primarily use, including a laptop and a studio machine.
Use it for commercial work without restriction. Files you produce with the Software are entirely yours. We claim no rights over your audio, your masters, or the reports and delivery packages the app generates, and we ask for no credit.
Keep using the version you have for as long as you like. A 1.x license activates every 1.x release.

A license is for one person. If two people work at the same time, that is two licenses. For a studio with several engineers, email us — we would rather sort out sensible pricing than have you guess.

3. What you may not do

Share, publish, resell, or sublicense your license file. It carries your name and email and identifies you.
Reverse engineer, decompile, or disassemble the Software, except where law expressly permits it despite this clause.
Remove or alter any notice inside the Software, or use our name or marks to imply we endorse your product.

4. License files and activation

Your license is a signed file, not an account. It activates offline; the Software never contacts a server to check it. Keep a copy somewhere safe — we can re-send it if you lose it, but only while we still hold your purchase record.

Because activation is offline we cannot revoke a license remotely, and we do not try to. This is a deliberate trade: it means the Software keeps working if we are asleep, if your studio is offline, or if this company ceases to exist.

5. Paying monthly

If you choose the pay-monthly option, you are buying the same perpetual license in twelve instalments, not renting it:

Each payment issues a license file that covers you until the next payment is due, plus fourteen days' grace.
The twelfth payment issues a license that never expires. The Software is then yours outright and billing stops by itself.
You may cancel at any time. You keep whatever the payments you have made covered, and no further payments are taken, but the license does not become perpetual until the twelfth payment is made.
Paying monthly costs more in total than buying outright. The prices on the pricing page show both, so you can compare before choosing.

6. Updates

Every 1.x update is included in a 1.x license, at no charge. A future major version may be a paid upgrade; if it is, we will offer a fair upgrade price to existing customers, and your 1.x license will keep working on 1.x forever regardless.

The spec profiles in the app record what each platform requires and the date we last verified it against that platform's own published documentation. Platforms change their requirements without telling anyone; we update the profiles when they do, but we cannot guarantee a profile matches what a platform will accept on any given day.

7. What the Software does not promise

SHAPR is a drum-shaping tool. With Auto on, it keeps the volume where it started. That is a claim we stand behind.

It is not a promise that any particular setting will suit any particular recording, or that the result will be accepted by any client. That depends on their process, their tolerances, and requirements they may not publish.

You remain responsible for checking your own deliverables before you send them. The Software's repair features write new files and never modify your originals, but you should keep your own backups regardless.

Except as stated above, and to the fullest extent the law allows, the Software is provided "as is" without warranties of any kind, whether express or implied, including merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose, and non-infringement.

8. Limits on liability

To the fullest extent the law allows, we are not liable for indirect, incidental, special, or consequential losses, including lost profits, lost work, rejected deliveries, or missed deadlines. Our total liability for any claim relating to the Software is limited to what you actually paid us for it in the twelve months before the claim.

Nothing here limits liability that cannot be limited by law — including for fraud, or for death or personal injury caused by negligence. If you are a consumer, you have statutory rights that this agreement does not affect, including under Canadian consumer protection law and, if you are in the UK or EU, your local equivalent.

9. Third-party components

The Software includes open-source components, listed with their licenses on the acknowledgments page. Those components are governed by their own licenses, which in some cases give you rights beyond this agreement.

10. Ending the agreement

You may stop using the Software at any time. We may end this license if you materially breach it — principally by sharing or reselling your license file — and we will tell you why first and give you a chance to put it right, unless the breach is wilful. Sections 7, 8 and 11 survive the end of this agreement.

11. Governing law

This agreement is governed by the laws of the Province of Quebec and the federal laws of Canada that apply there, and the courts of the district of Montreal have jurisdiction. If you are a consumer resident elsewhere, this does not deprive you of the protection of the mandatory law of your own country.

If you are a consumer resident in Quebec, the Consumer Protection Act (CQLR c. P-40.1) applies to this agreement, and nothing here limits or excludes any right it gives you. Where a provision of this agreement conflicts with that Act, the Act prevails.

12. Contact

Questions about these terms: support@williamsinstruments.com. We would much rather answer a question than have you guess.