Plain-English Terms
Terms.
Buying and using Shiny. The whole agreement, in language you can actually read, with the UK consumer-law detail required of a UK trader.
1. Who you're dealing with
Shiny is made and sold by TJH/CO LIMITED, a company registered in England and Wales (company number 16589593), trading as THEODOREHQ. The company is run by Theodore Harding, who is also the person who reads and replies to support emails.
Registered office and trading address:
Fairway House, Links Business
Fortran Rd, St. Mellons
Cardiff, CF3 0LT
United Kingdom
Email: support@theodorehq.com
When this document says "we", "us", or "THEODOREHQ", it means TJH/CO LIMITED. When it says "you", it means you, the person buying or using the app.
2. Your licence
When you buy Shiny, you receive a non-exclusive, non-transferable licence to install and use it on up to three Macs that you personally own or use. The licence is yours forever for the major version you bought (e.g. 1.x), including all minor and bug-fix updates. If we ever release a paid major version (2.0, 3.0), you'll be offered an upgrade at a fair existing-customer price; you are never required to upgrade.
3. What you may not do
You may not redistribute, resell, sublicense, rent, or share your licence key publicly. You may not reverse-engineer the app to circumvent licensing. You may take Shiny apart for personal study and curiosity; we just ask that you don't use what you find to harm other users.
4. Your 14-day cooling-off right (and how it works for digital downloads)
Under the Consumer Contracts (Information, Cancellation and Additional Charges) Regulations 2013, when you buy a digital product like Shiny online from a UK trader, you have a 14-day right to cancel for any reason and receive a full refund.
Because Shiny is a digital download that you receive immediately, the law (Regulation 37(1)(a)) lets us deliver your licence right away only if you expressly consent to immediate provision and acknowledge that you lose the 14-day cancellation right by doing so. We ask for that consent at checkout in the form of a tick-box that says, in plain English:
"I want immediate access to my licence key and I accept that, by doing so, I lose my 14-day right to cancel."
If you do not tick that box at checkout, your purchase is on hold for 14 days, your licence is not delivered, and you can cancel for any reason and receive a full refund.
If you do tick that box, your licence is delivered immediately and the 14-day right does not apply. This is the default path most buyers take, and it does not affect your rights below under the Consumer Rights Act 2015.
To exercise the cooling-off right (where it still applies), email support@theodorehq.com within 14 days of purchase. We refund within 14 days of receiving your cancellation notice.
5. Your rights under the Consumer Rights Act 2015
Separately from any cooling-off right, the Consumer Rights Act 2015 gives you the following statutory rights for digital content. They apply forever, not just for 14 days, and override anything else in this document:
- Satisfactory quality — Shiny must be of a quality a reasonable person would consider satisfactory (s.34).
- Fit for purpose — Shiny must be fit for the particular purpose you bought it for, where that purpose was made known to us (s.35).
- As described — Shiny must match anything we have said about it on this website, in marketing, or in the app (s.36).
If Shiny falls short on any of those, you are entitled to a repair, replacement, or refund as the law provides (sections 42–46). To make a claim, email support@theodorehq.com describing the issue. We will respond within 30 days.
6. Newsletter — the email clause
By purchasing Shiny, you consent to receive our customer newsletter at the email address used at checkout. This is a "soft opt-in" under Regulation 22(3) of the Privacy and Electronic Communications Regulations 2003 (PECR), which the law specifically allows for direct marketing of similar products to existing customers.
The newsletter is sent at most a few times a year and covers: new versions of Shiny, important changes (security, pricing, or this document), and occasionally other small Mac apps we make.
At checkout, an unticked box gives you the option to opt out of the newsletter without affecting your purchase. You can also unsubscribe with one click from any newsletter email. Either action takes effect within 30 days. Unsubscribing has no effect whatsoever on your licence — the app keeps working forever.
We do not sell, rent, share, or trade your email address. Read the Privacy policy for the full data-handling story.
7. Updates
Shiny includes Apple's Sparkle update framework. By default the app checks for new versions once a day and asks you before installing. You can disable update checks in Settings. We strongly recommend leaving them on for security fixes.
8. Tax and VAT
Polar.sh is the merchant of record for your purchase. They calculate, collect, and remit any sales tax, VAT, or GST that applies in your country. The price shown at checkout is the final price you pay; no surprise charges are added later by us.
9. Warranty — what we promise, and don't
We promise Shiny is built with care, signed by Apple's developer programme, and notarized. We test it on every macOS release we support.
However, software is software, and we cannot promise it will be bug-free or that it will solve every memory-pressure scenario on every Mac configuration ever made. To the maximum extent permitted by applicable law, we disclaim implied warranties of merchantability and fitness for a particular purpose beyond those given to you by section 5 above. Nothing in this document affects your statutory consumer rights under UK law.
10. Limitation of liability
If something Shiny does, or fails to do, somehow causes you loss, our maximum liability to you is the amount you paid for your licence. This does not limit liability for fraud, gross negligence, death or personal injury caused by negligence, or anything else that UK law does not allow to be limited.
11. Privacy
Privacy has its own document, in plainer English than this one. Read it here: Privacy policy.
12. Termination
You can stop using Shiny anytime by dragging it to the Trash. Your licence remains valid; you can reinstall later.
We may revoke a licence only in cases of fraud, a chargeback raised without first contacting us to resolve the issue, or a wilful breach of section 3. We will email you first wherever possible, so a misunderstanding does not become a revocation.
13. Governing law and jurisdiction
These terms are governed by the laws of England and Wales. If we ever disagree about something this document covers, we'll first try to resolve it by email like grown-ups; failing that, the courts of England and Wales have non-exclusive jurisdiction. Nothing here removes any right you have to bring proceedings in the country where you live, if local consumer-protection law gives you that right.
14. Changes
If we change these terms, we'll update the date at the top and notify customers by email at least 14 days before the changes take effect. Any change that materially reduces your rights will not apply to you retroactively.
15. Contact
All questions about this document or anything else: support@theodorehq.com.