# Darkstar Software License v3.0 Copyright © 2026 S.M. Sterling. All rights reserved. ## 1. Definitions “Darkstar” means the official Darkstar software and all Darkstar source code, compiled code, executable code, user-interface assets, documentation, artwork, and other materials distributed as part of Darkstar by the Licensor, excluding Third-Party Components and Independent Extensions. “Licensor” means the copyright owner who creates, publishes, and controls Darkstar under the pseudonym S.M. Sterling, together with any lawful successors or assigns of those rights. “You” means the individual or legal entity exercising rights under this License. If an individual installs, accesses, or uses Darkstar on behalf of a business, organization, or other legal entity, “You” means that entity for purposes of that use. “Trial Period” means the first thirty-one (31) consecutive days beginning when You first launch or execute Darkstar. For an organization, the Trial Period begins when Darkstar is first launched or executed by any person on behalf of that organization. Installation, downloading, accessing, viewing, inspecting, or possessing Darkstar without launching or executing it does not begin the Trial Period. Reinstallation, updating, use on another device, creation of another account, or similar action does not restart the Trial Period. The Licensor may expressly grant a different or additional trial period through an official distribution or licensing channel. “Commercial Use” means use of Darkstar in connection with a business, profession, employment, trade, commercial product or service, revenue-generating activity, paid work, internal business operations, or any activity intended to obtain a direct or indirect commercial benefit. “Enterprise Use” means use of Darkstar by or on behalf of a business, corporation, partnership, organization, institution, governmental body, or other legal entity in connection with its operations. Enterprise Use is treated as Commercial Use under this License. “Commercial License” means a paid license, subscription, entitlement, license key, order, or other authorization issued or expressly recognized by the Licensor that permits use of Darkstar, including Commercial Use, for a stated period or on stated terms. A Commercial License may impose limits concerning users, team members, seats, devices, organizations, features, deployment, or other scope. A Commercial License is considered paid unless the Licensor expressly waives payment in writing. Paid plans offered by the Licensor, including Darkstar Professional and Darkstar Enterprise, are Commercial Licenses. “Commercial Authorization Period” means either (a) the Trial Period, or (b) any period during which a valid Commercial License covering the applicable use is in effect. “Contribution” means source code, object code, patches, fixes, documentation, tests, artwork, assets, configurations, designs, or other material intentionally submitted by a person or entity to the Licensor through an official Darkstar repository or other official contribution channel for possible incorporation into Darkstar. “Accepted Contribution” means a Contribution that the Licensor merges, incorporates, or otherwise expressly accepts into an official Darkstar repository, release, distribution, or codebase. Merely submitting, proposing, opening, or offering a Contribution does not constitute acceptance. The official Darkstar repositories, official distribution channels, and the licensing contact address smsterling@protonmail.com are authoritative communication channels designated by the Licensor. Control of those channels is evidence of authority to act for Darkstar, but loss, compromise, or unauthorized control of any such channel does not transfer ownership, copyright, or licensing authority to another person. ## 2. Permission to Use You may install and use Darkstar only during an applicable Commercial Authorization Period, subject to this License. By installing or using Darkstar, You accept this License. You may use Darkstar only in compliance with applicable law. You may not use Darkstar to infringe the rights of others, to create or distribute unlawful content, or to commit fraud, harassment, or any other unlawful act. You may not use Darkstar to create non-consensual sexual content or deceptive depictions of real people, including deepfakes; to promote hatred; to create or distribute malware; to expose the private information of others; to deceive others; or to interfere with the security or operation of any system without authorization. You are solely responsible for your use of Darkstar and its output, and a violation of this paragraph is a material violation of this License. During the Trial Period, Commercial Use and Enterprise Use are permitted without payment, subject to all other terms of this License. After the Trial Period expires, You may not use Darkstar unless and only while a valid Commercial License covering that use is in effect. When the applicable Commercial License expires, terminates, is suspended, or otherwise ceases to authorize the use, use must cease unless another valid Commercial License applies. A Commercial License grants use only for its stated duration and scope. Payment for, possession of, or access to one Commercial License does not authorize use outside its stated users, team members, seats, devices, organizations, features, deployment scope, term, or other applicable limits. You may inspect, analyze, reverse engineer, or modify your own copy of Darkstar for private or internal use. Commercial or Enterprise Use of a modified copy remains subject to the Commercial Authorization Period requirements above. You may make copies reasonably necessary for installation, operation, backup, archival purposes, or authorized internal deployment. An organization may make Darkstar available to its employees and contractors solely as necessary for authorized internal use, provided that the organization remains responsible for compliance with this License and the applicable Commercial License. No ownership rights in Darkstar are transferred to You. ## 3. No Redistribution You may not mirror, re-upload, publish, sublicense, sell, rent, lease, bundle, share, transfer, or otherwise distribute Darkstar, whether modified or unmodified, without prior written permission from the Licensor. You may not host or make Darkstar itself, its source code, its compiled code, or a modified or derivative copy available to third parties for download, copying, transfer, or acquisition without prior written permission from the Licensor. You may not operate or maintain an unofficial download source, mirror, repository, package, archive, or other distribution channel for Darkstar. Only the Licensor, or a party expressly authorized by the Licensor, may distribute Darkstar. Official distribution through repositories, hosting services, download platforms, or other channels selected by the Licensor is permitted without restriction. Forking Darkstar through functionality provided by an official repository hosting service is permitted, provided that the fork remains subject to this License and is not used as an independent distribution channel, mirror, rebranded product, or means of redistributing Darkstar outside that service. You may not offer Darkstar, or access to its functionality, to third parties as a hosted, network, or service-based offering without prior written permission from the Licensor. Nothing in this Section prohibits authorized internal deployment under Section 2. ## 4. No Rebranding You may not distribute, present, package, or market Darkstar or any modified or derivative version of Darkstar under another product name, brand, identity, or presentation. You may not remove, replace, imitate, conceal, or repurpose Darkstar branding in order to represent Darkstar or a derivative version as another product. Nothing in this Section restricts the Licensor. The Licensor may rename, rebrand, modify, commercialize, privatize, discontinue, sell, assign, sublicense, relicense, or otherwise use Darkstar in any manner. ## 5. Darkstar Branding The Darkstar name, logos, icons, artwork, visual identity, trade dress, and other official branding are reserved exclusively to the Licensor. Except as expressly permitted below, no trademark, branding, or other right to use Darkstar branding is granted under this License. Independent software may truthfully describe itself as “for Darkstar,” “compatible with Darkstar,” or substantially equivalent wording, provided that such use does not imply that the software is official, endorsed, sponsored, authored, or distributed by the Licensor. ## 6. Independent Extensions Independent tools, plugins, custom nodes, skills, workflows, integrations, and other software created independently for use with Darkstar remain the property of their respective authors. Subject to Section 2, this License does not prevent the creation, modification, publication, sale, or distribution of Independent Extensions that interact with Darkstar through documented or otherwise available interfaces. Commercial Use of Darkstar itself to develop, test, operate, support, or provide an Independent Extension remains subject to the Commercial Authorization Period requirements in Section 2. Independent Extensions may not incorporate or redistribute Darkstar itself or protected Darkstar materials except with prior written permission from the Licensor. ## 7. Contributions A Contribution intentionally submitted to the Licensor through an official Darkstar repository or other official contribution channel for possible incorporation into Darkstar is submitted under this License. Upon acceptance of an Accepted Contribution, the contributor grants the Licensor a perpetual, irrevocable, worldwide, royalty-free, transferable, and sublicensable license to use, reproduce, modify, adapt, prepare derivative works from, publish, distribute, publicly display, publicly perform, commercialize, sublicense, relicense, and otherwise exploit the Accepted Contribution, in whole or in part, as part of Darkstar or otherwise in connection with Darkstar. Upon acceptance of an Accepted Contribution, the contributor also grants the Licensor a perpetual, irrevocable, worldwide, royalty-free, transferable, and sublicensable patent license under any patent claims that the contributor has authority to license and that are necessarily infringed by the Accepted Contribution alone or by its combination with Darkstar, to make, have made, use, offer to sell, sell, import, commercialize, sublicense, relicense, and otherwise exploit the Accepted Contribution and Darkstar containing it. The Licensor may incorporate an Accepted Contribution into Darkstar and may exercise the rights described in Section 9 with respect to Darkstar containing that Accepted Contribution, including commercializing, sublicensing, relicensing, privatizing, selling, assigning, or otherwise exploiting Darkstar. The contributor represents that the contributor has sufficient rights and authority to submit the Contribution under these terms and to grant the rights described in this Section. The acceptance-specific grants and rights described in this Section arise only when a Contribution becomes an Accepted Contribution. Mere submission, proposal, opening, or offering of a Contribution does not itself constitute acceptance or trigger those acceptance-specific grants or rights. ## 8. Third-Party Components Darkstar may contain or operate with software, libraries, runtimes, assets, or other materials owned by third parties. Those Third-Party Components remain subject to their respective copyright notices and license terms. Nothing in this License replaces, restricts, expands, or overrides rights granted or obligations imposed by an applicable third-party license. Where this License conflicts with the license governing a Third-Party Component, the third-party license controls with respect to that component. ## 9. Licensor Rights Nothing in this License restricts the Licensor’s ownership or exercise of rights in Darkstar. The Licensor may modify, reproduce, distribute, commercialize, sublicense, relicense, privatize, publish, discontinue, rename, rebrand, sell, assign, or otherwise exploit Darkstar in whole or in part. The Licensor may change Darkstar’s licensing model, source availability, pricing, distribution method, branding, ownership structure, or commercial model for future releases. ## 10. No Warranty Darkstar is provided “as is” and “as available,” without warranties of any kind, express or implied, to the maximum extent permitted by applicable law. The Licensor does not guarantee that Darkstar will be uninterrupted, error-free, secure, compatible with particular hardware or software, or suitable for any particular purpose. Darkstar uses artificial-intelligence models, including models supplied by third parties, which may produce output that is incorrect, incomplete, misleading, offensive, unsuitable, or similar to existing works. Output is not professional advice, including medical, legal, or financial advice, and must not be relied on where an error could cause injury, loss, or other harm. You are responsible for reviewing and verifying all output before relying on or using it, and the Licensor is not responsible for that output. The Licensor claims no ownership of output You generate with Darkstar. ## 11. Limitation of Liability To the maximum extent permitted by applicable law, the Licensor has no liability whatsoever arising out of or relating to Darkstar, this License, any Commercial License, or the use of or inability to use Darkstar, whether the claimed liability is direct, indirect, incidental, special, exemplary, consequential, contractual, tortious, statutory, or otherwise. To the maximum extent permitted by applicable law, under no circumstances will the Licensor owe or be required to pay any damages, compensation, reimbursement, indemnity, restitution, costs, fees, penalties, or any other monetary or financial payment of any kind to any user, licensee, contributor, customer, organization, or other person or entity in connection with Darkstar, this License, any Commercial License, or any related use, transaction, event, claim, loss, or dispute. No provision of this License creates, recognizes, or accepts any monetary liability or payment obligation of the Licensor. To the extent permitted by applicable law, You will defend, indemnify, and hold harmless the Licensor from and against any claim, demand, loss, damage, liability, cost, or expense, including reasonable attorneys’ fees, arising out of or relating to Your use of Darkstar or its output, Your violation of this License or applicable law, or Your infringement of the rights of any third party. The Licensor may control the defense and settlement of any such claim, and You may not settle a claim in a way that imposes any obligation or admission on the Licensor without the Licensor’s prior written consent. ## 12. Expiration and Termination Expiration of the Trial Period or expiration, termination, suspension, or lapse of a Commercial License ends the rights to use Darkstar that depended on that Commercial Authorization Period. A Commercial License ends automatically when its subscription is cancelled and the paid period ends, or when a payment fails, is refunded, or is reversed, including by chargeback. Your permission to use Darkstar under this License terminates automatically if You materially violate its terms. The Licensor may suspend or terminate a Commercial License on reasonable suspicion of fraud or a security risk, or for repeated or serious violations of this License. Upon termination of this License, You must cease any activity that depended upon rights granted by this License. Expiration or termination of a Commercial License does not authorize continued use merely because Darkstar remains installed, accessible, functional, or technically capable of operating. Sections concerning ownership, redistribution, branding, Third-Party Components, Licensor rights, warranty disclaimers, limitations of liability, severability, and reserved rights survive termination to the extent applicable. ## 13. Commercial, Enterprise, and Additional Licensing Ordinary Commercial Use and Enterprise Use are permitted during the Trial Period and during the term of a valid Commercial License, subject to Section 2. A Commercial License does not grant redistribution, OEM distribution, official derivative distribution, embedded distribution, white-label distribution, rebranding, sublicensing, or other distribution rights. Those expanded rights require separate express authorization or a separate written agreement with the Licensor. Commercial, enterprise, OEM, redistribution, embedded-distribution, white-label, and additional licensing inquiries must be directed to: smsterling@protonmail.com ## 14. Severability If any provision of this License is held invalid, unlawful, or unenforceable, that provision will be enforced to the maximum extent permitted by applicable law, and the remaining provisions will remain in effect. ## 15. No Waiver Failure or delay by the Licensor in exercising or enforcing any right under this License does not waive that right or prevent its later enforcement. A waiver concerning one violation does not constitute a waiver concerning any other or future violation. ## 16. Entire License This License constitutes the terms granted by the Licensor for the copy of Darkstar distributed under it, except where a Commercial License or separate written agreement expressly provides different or additional terms. A Commercial License may supplement this License with terms concerning duration, payment, users, seats, devices, organizations, features, deployment, or other scope. If an applicable Commercial License expressly conflicts with this License, the Commercial License controls only to the extent of that conflict and only for the rights it expressly grants. No additional rights arise from conduct, implication, publication, compatibility, continued technical functionality, or access to Darkstar. ## 17. Rights Reserved All rights not expressly granted under this License are reserved by the Licensor.