Soft Story Audio

1. Purpose

These Terms govern the conditions and procedures for using the Soft Story Audio speech-synthesis service (the “Service”) provided by Soft Story (the “Company”).

2. The Service

The Service turns user-submitted text into AI-generated speech. The Company may change or discontinue features or voices for substantial technical, security, safety, voice-actor or licensing reasons. We will give advance notice where practicable if a change materially affects paid use, or prompt notice afterward if an urgent issue prevents advance notice. If a core paid feature cannot be provided, users retain their rights under the Refund Policy and applicable law.

3. User obligations

• Users may not use the Service to infringe the rights of others or for any unlawful or improper purpose.
• Synthesized audio must not be used for impersonation, fraud, defamation, or other unlawful purposes.
• Users must hold the lawful rights to any text they submit.
• Users must secure their accounts and API keys, must not expose keys in public apps or web clients, and must not share them with third parties. Report unauthorized use or a leaked key promptly and revoke and replace the key. Anyone acting for an organization must have authority to do so and must ensure end users follow these Terms and the Acceptable Use Policy. This does not transfer responsibility for unauthorized use caused by the Company to the user.

4. Prohibited content & restrictions

Standards for safe and trustworthy voice production. This policy forms part of the Terms and applies to free and paid plans. Users must follow laws, regulations and guidelines applicable in Korea and service regions, and this policy.

• Acceptable Use Policy

5A. Permitted use of output, by plan

• Paid users (those who have purchased credits or hold, or have held, a paid subscription) may use output they lawfully generate for both commercial and non-commercial purposes. This right survives the exhaustion of credits or the end of a subscription for output already generated.
• Free users (those with no paid purchase history) may use output for personal, non-commercial purposes and to evaluate the Service. Use directly or indirectly connected to revenue, including advertising, paid content, monetized channels or output supplied or sold to third parties, requires prior consultation with the Company and its specific permission for that use.
• Free users may also download the generated output as an audio file. Downloading does not broaden the scope of use: the free-user terms above or the scope separately permitted by the Company still apply.
• Where a free user posts output where the general public can see it, including blogs, social media and video platforms, the user must credit the Company as the source of the speech (for example, “Voice generated: Soft Story Audio”). If the posting constitutes the revenue-linked use restricted above, attribution alone does not permit it without prior consultation with the Company.
• The Company may record, retain and use text submitted by free users, and the speech generated from it, for research and development aimed at improving synthesis quality. Text and output from paid users are not used for this purpose. Personal data handling in this process follows the Privacy Policy, and users may ask customer support to stop such use of their records.
• If a free user breaches the scope of use or the attribution requirement above, the Company may restrict use or terminate the agreement, and may claim damages arising from the breach. If the user subsequently purchases credits, the paid-user terms apply to output generated after the time of purchase.
• Creating or operating multiple accounts to exceed the scope of the free allowance is prohibited, and the Company may reclaim unused free credits granted to such accounts.
• Regardless of plan, the Company may review and process submitted text, generated audio, account information and usage records only as necessary to assess compliance with laws, regulations and guidelines applicable in Korea and service regions, and with the Terms and Acceptable Use Policy; prevent illegal content, rights violations and abuse; and handle reports and disputes. Processing requires a lawful basis under applicable law. Paid users’ text and output remain excluded from training and research to improve speech-synthesis quality. Scope, retention and user rights are governed by the Privacy Policy.

• Privacy Policy
• Acceptable Use Policy

5. Intellectual property & voices

The Company owns or lawfully licenses the voice models and service components it develops and uses. External data, audio and software remain the property of their respective rights holders. Sources and licenses are described separately in Open Source Licenses. Permitted use of output is governed by these Terms, the Acceptable Use Policy or a separate agreement.

• Rights in submitted text remain with the user or the original rights holder. The plan-based right to use output does not transfer rights in the Company’s voice models or actor voices. AI output may resemble another user’s output, and copyright protection or freedom from third-party claims is not automatic; check the necessary rights and facts before publication or commercial use.

• Open Source Licenses

5B. AI model protection and restrictions on AI use of output

The Company retains its rights in voice models, training and inference technology, and service components developed through its own research and development. Third-party materials and open-source components remain subject to their owners’ rights and licenses. Commercial permission for output does not include permission for AI training, distillation, model analysis or research and development. Without the Company’s prior written permission, you must not directly or indirectly use the Service, generated audio, previews or Company-supplied voice materials to train, fine-tune, distill, evaluate, improve or research and develop another AI or machine-learning system, or supply them to third parties for those purposes. This applies to free and paid use, competing and non-competing systems, and commercial, non-profit and academic purposes. The Acceptable Use Policy specifies prohibited conduct and permitted uses.

• These restrictions do not transfer rights in your own scripts or prohibit plan-permitted audio playback in videos, advertisements, games, apps or hardware; ordinary production, editing, captioning or accessibility; checking Service quality; or honest reviews. Inference through ordinary production tools is permitted, but supplying output as training, model-evaluation or research material for those tools or another AI is not. Separate academic or security research or data provision requires the Company’s prior written permission identifying the purpose, materials, target models, third parties and duration. Rights that cannot lawfully be restricted, and independent rights under third-party or open-source licenses, are preserved. Existing prohibitions on unauthorized model replication and rights violations continue to apply; the additional restrictions in this revision follow the amendment notice.

• Acceptable Use Policy

6. Credits: nature, payment and refunds

Credits are a pass for the speech-synthesis service the Company provides. Credits are deducted according to the amount you use: 1 credit per Korean character in the web studio, 320 credits per 1,000 characters through the API (including MCP, rounded up per request), and for video translation at the rate shown in the Service. Users receive credits either through a subscription or by purchasing voice credits. Credits may be applied only to speech synthesis within the Service. They are not redeemable or exchangeable for cash or any cash equivalent, may not be transferred, sold, or lent to anyone else, and cannot be used as a means of payment outside the Service. Purchased credits may be used for 12 months from the date they are granted; any credits remaining after that period expire. Free and subscription credits renew each month and do not roll over. Refunds are governed by the following policy.

• The same product-specific refund rules apply to domestic Korean and international payments; only the payment route differs. Credits provided free of charge are not refundable because no payment was made for them.
• Refund amounts are determined from the relevant payment and service period. Only credits belonging to the refunded payment are adjusted; credits purchased through other payments or granted for other periods are preserved.
• More favorable rights to withdrawal, termination, reimbursement or damages under applicable law or applicable consumer dispute-resolution standards take precedence. More favorable rights under an existing agreement are also preserved.
• Send withdrawal, early subscription termination or refund requests electronically to business@softstorycorp.com. Specify the product and payment details and whether you want to stop the next renewal or end the current period. We will explain the refund basis after checking what was supplied and used for that payment.
• Refunds are processed to the original payment method within 3 business days from the starting point required by applicable law. Card-statement updates and the payment provider’s actual payout timing may vary by provider.
• Domestic (Korean) payments are processed through Toss Payments with the Company as the seller; receipts and sales slips are issued in the Company’s name.
• International payments are processed by Lemon Squeezy (Sold through Link, LLC, United States) acting as Merchant of Record, so Lemon Squeezy may appear as the seller on your card statement and receipt.
• For international payments, your email address is transferred to Lemon Squeezy in the United States; we obtain your separate consent to this before checkout (Privacy Policy, Section 5). No overseas transfer occurs for domestic payments.
• The billing country you select at checkout is retained with the order record as the basis for determining the place of supply for VAT. The Company may cancel a payment if the country selected does not reflect your actual location.
• Where legally required conditions for limiting withdrawal, including notice and an opportunity to try the content, have been met, withdrawal may be restricted for digital content whose supply has already begun, to the extent permitted by law. Starting voice generation does not by itself remove refund rights guaranteed by applicable law.
• These refund rules do not limit statutory rights to withdrawal, refund or damages where the Service does not conform to the agreement or cannot be provided due to the Company’s fault. Contact support so the circumstances can be reviewed individually.

• Refund Policy and how to request a refund

6A. Voice-credit refunds

• You may request a full refund within 7 days of buying voice credits if none of the credits from that purchase have been used.
• If some credits from that purchase have been used within 7 days, the refund is proportional to the remaining purchased credits, deducting the value of the used portion from the amount actually paid.
• After 7 days or expiry, you may still request review of a refund for the undelivered portion or under your statutory rights. The passage of time or expiry alone does not exclude these rights.
• Purchased voice credits can be used for 12 months from the date they are granted. They cannot be used for synthesis after expiry, but refund requests described above and statutory rights are assessed separately.
• If all credits from that purchase have been used, no credits remain for an undelivered-portion refund. Statutory rights for non-conforming service or the Company’s fault remain available.

6B. Subscription cancellation and refunds

• You can stop the next renewal in your account. Stopping only the next renewal keeps service and remaining subscription credits available until the current paid period ends. Refund eligibility is checked separately under the rules below.
• Subscription credits renew each month; unused credits do not roll over.
• You may request a full refund of a monthly subscription within 7 days of payment, including day 7, if exactly zero credits from that billing period have been used for successful voice generation and no jobs are pending.
• After 7 days or any successful voice generation using credits from that billing period, an ordinary monthly subscription refund is unavailable. You can stop the next renewal and use the current period until it ends. Contact support for a separate review under statutory rights, Company fault or non-conforming service.
• When an automatic refund is available, review the original payment, credits used this period and refund amount in your account, then confirm separately. Once the refund is complete, your current subscription ends immediately. Only remaining credits from the relevant billing period are reclaimed; credits from other periods or separate purchases are preserved.
• More favorable refund rights guaranteed by an agreement made before this change are preserved and reviewed separately. More favorable rights under applicable law or applicable consumer dispute-resolution standards also take precedence.

7. Limitation of liability

To the extent permitted by law, the Company is not responsible for delays caused by events beyond its reasonable control, such as natural disasters. This does not exclude liability for the Company’s or its agents’ intentional misconduct, gross negligence, breach of contract or mandatory legal obligations. Users are responsible to the extent they are at fault for unlawful input or use of output that infringes others’ rights, but not for the Company’s own fault.

8. Privacy

The Company protects users’ personal information in accordance with applicable laws; details are governed by a separate Privacy Policy.

9. Changes to Terms and paid conditions

When changing these Terms or important paid-service conditions, the Company will announce the reason, content and effective date reasonably in advance through the Service and give individual notice where law requires it. Urgent legal or security changes that cannot be announced beforehand will be explained promptly afterward. Changes do not retroactively remove rights to lawfully generated output or statutory rights for a paid period. Users who disagree may stop using the Service, cancel a subscription or request an applicable refund.