Terms of use and licence agreement

1. Parties and service

This agreement is between Mert S. Kaplan (the "operator"), who provides LiveType, and the user who opens an account. LiveType turns speech (live streams, the microphone, audio files) into text in the user’s own browser, or on a teammate’s transcriber device the user picks, and lets people edit the text together. Audio, recordings and speakers’ voice prints are never sent to the server; the server keeps only account data and transcript text.

2. Account

You are responsible for giving correct details, keeping your password safe and what is done with your account. You can delete your account at any time on the Account page, confirming with the link sent to your address. A deleted account and its transcripts can no longer be reached; the records stay in the database, and signing up again with the same address does not give the used free time again.

3. What you transcribe, and data responsibility

The speech you transcribe may contain other people’s personal data. Under Turkey’s Personal Data Protection Law No. 6698 (KVKK) you are the data controller for that data: you decide what to transcribe and why. The operator is the data processor that only stores the transcripts on your behalf.

4. Speakers’ voice prints (biometric data)

With speaker separation on, your browser derives a technical output (a voice print) from each speaker’s voice in order to recognise the same person. This output may count as biometric, that is special category, personal data under KVKK article 6. Voice prints are not kept on the server; they stay encrypted on your device and are deleted by themselves after 60 days without use. When you have a teammate’s transcriber device transcribe, that transcript’s voice prints go straight (peer to peer) to that device; new voice prints it finds come back to you, and both devices keep them under the same rules (encrypted, deleted after 60 days without use). They never go to the server.

You accept that this processing is your responsibility as data controller. A technical output made "to recognise the same person" needs a legal basis: the person’s explicit consent, or a basis such as "made public by the person concerned", added to article 6 by Law No. 7499 in 2024. If you have no such basis, turn speaker separation off.

5. Streams and copyright

You are responsible for following the terms of use and copyright of the streams, videos and recordings you transcribe.

6. Plans, time and retention

On the free plan, the total transcription time is 30 minutes. Transcripts stay on the server per plan: Free 15 days, Individual 60 days, Business · 5 people without limit, Business · 20 people without limit; expired transcripts are deleted and the list shows the days left. Export the transcripts you want to keep. The free plan allows one account per device: if another free account was used on a device in the last 30 days, no new free account can be opened or signed into from it.

7. Scope of the licence

For as long as your account is open and your plan runs, the operator grants you a non-exclusive, non-transferable, non-sublicensable and limited right to use LiveType only through the web app at its own address. All rights in the software, the site, the design and the brand belong to the operator; you are given this right of use, not the software itself.

An account is personal and may not be shared. The individual plan is for one person, a team plan only for the people added to the team. You may sign in on your own devices; one transcript screen can be open at a time, and on the free plan one free account can be used per device (section 6). The software may not be run on another domain, server or product, framed, or offered anywhere but LiveType's own address.

You may not copy, reproduce, distribute, rent, sell or modify the software's code, model settings or interface; reverse engineer, decompile or decrypt it (except where Turkish Law No. 5846 on Intellectual and Artistic Works allows it); try to get around time, device, screen or security limits; overload the service with automated tools; or use it to build a product that competes with LiveType. The open-source components inside the software are subject to their own licences.

8. Service level and limitation of liability

The service is provided "as is". The operator takes reasonable care to keep it running but does not promise any availability rate or response time. Maintenance, updates, failures of the infrastructure and providers the operator relies on (hosting, Cloudflare, Hugging Face, YouTube, cloud transcription providers) or force majeure can interrupt the service; planned maintenance is announced in advance where possible. The operator may change or stop the service; if it is stopped for good before a paid plan ends, the amount paid for the unused time is refunded.

Automatic transcription can be wrong; checking the text before you use it is your responsibility. A transcript is written in your browser and saved to the server; a dropped connection, a closed browser, a device running out of memory or a software error can lose part of the text. Export important transcripts and keep your own copy.

Unless it acted with intent or gross negligence, the operator is not liable for indirect damage (such as loss of profit, business, data or reputation) arising from using or being unable to use the service. Its total liability for direct damage is limited to the amount paid for that account in the 12 months before the damage arose. Liability that the law does not allow to be limited (Turkish Code of Obligations No. 6098, article 115) and your rights under Consumer Protection Law No. 6502 are unaffected.

9. Suspension and closure of the account

The operator may suspend or close your account with notice, or without notice when the matter is urgent, in these cases: a breach of this agreement, in particular of the licence (section 7); sharing, transferring or selling the account; opening several accounts to reuse the free time or trying to get around the device rule; using the service for unlawful purposes, in breach of others' rights or in a way that threatens its security; a reversed payment or a false payment notice; a request from the competent authorities.

A suspended account cannot sign in or reach its transcripts; a closed account's transcripts may be deleted. No refund is made for the plan time or credit left on an account closed for these reasons. If you think the decision is wrong, you can object by writing to                     . Deleting your account yourself is covered in section 2.

10. Changes

If this agreement changes, you are asked to accept the new version the next time you sign in.