— StarBridge Book Studio
Licence & terms of use.
Version 1.0.2026 · Effective 28 October 2026. These terms apply to StarBridge Book Studio version 1.0.2026 and later, whether you get it from the Mac App Store or by direct download. Please read them to the end.
1. Who we are and how to contact us
StarBridge Book Studio is supplied by Justin Marshall-Cutts trading as StarBridge Media. Address: StarBridge Media Studios 2026, 8 Retford Grove, Hartlepool, Cleveland, TS25 2NP, United Kingdom. Email: authors@starbridge.media. Telephone: +44 7356 300700. Website: https://starbridge.media. Opening hours: 9am-5pm Monday-Sunday (UK time); email is read outside these hours. © 2026 StarBridge Media. All rights reserved. In these terms "we", "us" and "StarBridge" mean StarBridge Media, and "you" means the person using the software.
2. Accepting these terms
You must read and accept these terms before using the app. If you do not agree, do not use it. Acceptance is recorded on your Mac with the terms version, a fingerprint of the text and the date. You can read the terms again at any time in Help, Tutorials & Legal. Keep a copy for your records using Copy text.
3. Your licence
We grant you a personal, non-exclusive, non-transferable licence to install and use StarBridge Book Studio on Macs that you own or control, to write, design, produce and publish your own books and related audio. You may not reverse engineer, decompile, resell, rent, sublicense or share the software, remove ownership notices, or bypass any activation or licence check, except where the law or an open-source licence gives you that right. We keep ownership of the software, its design and the StarBridge name and logo.
Mac App Store: your purchase is covered by Apple's standard Licensed Application End User Licence Agreement together with the Apple terms in section 16. There is no licence key to enter.
Direct download: the price, the number of Macs your licence covers and any licence-key rules are shown before you buy.
4. Your manuscripts, artwork and other content
You keep every right you hold in your manuscripts, artwork, recordings and project files. We claim no ownership of anything you write, import or create with the app. Do not import or publish material unless you have the rights to it. An approval label in the app records your own review; it does not grant copyright, trademark, performer or voice rights.
AI output can be wrong, repeat other people's work or be subject to someone else's rights. The app cannot guarantee ownership, originality, legal clearance, accuracy or that a retailer will accept your files. Check everything before you publish it.
5. What the software does, and its limits
StarBridge provides manuscript writing and planning tools, local project storage with recovery snapshots, artwork management, page design, previews, book checks, exports (print PDF, EPUB, fixed-layout EPUB, Word, text and packages), audiobook and podcast audio, and optional AI connections.
Some things it does not do: Animation Planning creates shot lists, not finished animation. Reviews keeps comments on your Mac; it is not live co-editing or cloud sync. PDF output is not PDF/X certified, and EPUB checks are not a retailer's approval. Local video generation is an experimental preview and is not recommended for finished work. Please read the User Guide for the current list of features and limits.
6. Your books and files on your Mac
Your books, artwork, recordings, voice references, settings and recovery files are stored on your Mac. Book packages include the pictures and audio you kept; API keys are never included. Automatic recovery snapshots are not an off-device backup, so keep your own backups and check that an exported package opens before relying on it. Deleting the app does not automatically delete your library, downloaded models or keys. Do not expose local AI services to networks you do not trust.
7. Built-in voice and optional engines
The natural Kokoro voice is built into the app. It runs entirely on your Mac, needs no internet or account, and is used for Read Aloud and quick narration.
Larger and more expressive voices, local writing models (such as Ollama) and local picture models (such as Draw Things) are optional extras that you choose to install separately. They are separate software, with their own licences, download sizes and hardware needs. In the direct-download edition StarBridge can prepare a helper for them; the Mac App Store edition does not download or run extra code. Check the size and requirements shown in the User Guide before downloading anything. An external drive adds storage, not memory. Download time and any data charges depend on your own connection and provider. You may decline optional downloads and still use all the core book tools.
Results vary with your Mac, the model and the text. We do not promise real-time speed, a particular emotion, exact wording or compatibility with every third-party model. Do not redistribute a separate tool or model just because StarBridge can connect to it; its own licence applies.
8. Speech, voice cloning and recordings
Use your own voice, or a voice you have permission to use. Do not use any feature for deceptive impersonation, false endorsement, fraud or any other unlawful purpose. Get any consent you need before using another person's recording, and respect performer, privacy and data-protection rights.
A voice reference you import stays on your Mac as a local file. It guides a new local voice; it does not train or change the downloaded model, and a replaced reference is kept as a local backup that you should protect too. Quality, accent and likeness vary, and no model guarantees an identical voice or any particular delivery. Listen to audio before you keep, publish or sell it.
9. Online services you choose to use
If you connect ElevenLabs, OpenAI, Anthropic or another provider, the text you choose to send goes to that provider using your own account and API key (kept in the macOS Keychain). It needs internet and may use your account credits. We do not provide a shared paid AI account. The provider's terms, privacy policy, limits and charges apply separately, so read them before sending confidential material. Local Ollama requests stay on your Mac.
10. Privacy
We do not collect your personal data. The app has no accounts, advertising, analytics or tracking, and your books are not sent to us. Our full Privacy Notice is in Help, Tutorials & Legal and at https://starbridge.media/book-studio/privacy/.
11. Open-source and third-party software
StarBridge includes open-source software, a text-to-speech model and fonts, each under its own licence. The full list and licence texts are in Help, Tutorials & Legal under Third-party licence notices. These licences apply to those components and are not changed by these terms.
12. Price, purchases, refunds and cancellation
Mac App Store: Apple takes payment and handles refunds, under Apple's terms. Request a refund at https://reportaproblem.apple.com.
Direct download: the price, taxes, what is included and how to cancel are shown clearly before you pay, and you will receive a copy of the terms you agreed to. Where the law gives you a right to cancel a digital purchase (for example the 14-day cancellation period for UK and EU consumers, unless you asked for immediate access and agreed that the right ends once access begins), we honour it.
Nothing in these terms removes your legal rights, including your right to a remedy if digital content is faulty, not as described or not fit for purpose.
13. Updates and support
Support: authors@starbridge.media, with the opening hours in section 1. We aim to reply promptly but do not promise a fixed response time. Mac App Store updates arrive through the App Store; direct-download updates are announced on https://starbridge.media. Only install updates from those sources.
14. Our responsibility
We will provide the software with reasonable care and skill. Please keep backups of your work. We are not responsible for losses we could not reasonably have predicted, or for the actions, availability or charges of third-party providers you choose to use. Nothing in these terms limits or excludes our liability for death or personal injury caused by our negligence, for fraud, or for anything else the law does not allow us to limit.
15. Stopping, changes and governing law
You can stop using the software at any time by deleting the app; separately keep or delete your library, voice references, model files and provider accounts as you wish. Your lawful access to your own content does not depend on a licence dispute. We may update these terms for legal, security or product reasons; you will be asked to accept a new version before you continue using the app, and a change will never reduce your legal rights.
These terms are governed by the law of England and Wales. If you are a consumer, you also keep the mandatory consumer-protection rights of the country where you live, and you may bring a claim in the courts of your home country. Please contact us first so we can try to resolve any problem quickly.
16. Terms for the Mac App Store edition (Apple)
If you downloaded StarBridge Book Studio from the Mac App Store:
(a) These terms are between you and StarBridge Media only, not Apple. StarBridge Media, not Apple, is responsible for the software and its content.
(b) The licence is limited to a non-transferable licence to use the software on Apple-branded products you own or control, as allowed by the Apple Media Services Terms and Conditions and the App Store usage rules.
(c) StarBridge Media is responsible for maintenance and support (section 13). Apple has no obligation to provide any.
(d) If the software does not meet a warranty that applies by law, tell Apple and Apple will refund the purchase price. To the extent the law allows, Apple has no other warranty duty for the software; any other claim, loss or cost is a matter for StarBridge Media.
(e) StarBridge Media, not Apple, deals with any claim about the software or your use of it, including product liability, legal or regulatory compliance, and consumer-protection or privacy claims.
(f) If a third party claims that the software infringes their intellectual property rights, StarBridge Media, not Apple, is responsible for investigating and resolving that claim.
(g) You confirm that you are not located in a country subject to a US Government embargo or designated as a "terrorist supporting" country, and are not on any US Government list of prohibited or restricted parties.
(h) You must follow any applicable third-party terms when using the software, such as your terms with an AI provider.
(i) Apple and its subsidiaries are third-party beneficiaries of these terms and, once you accept them, may enforce them against you.