Terms of Service

Who we are

Charlestock is operated as a division of Ellis Creek LLC, a South Carolina limited liability company with a mailing address at 2 Live Oak Ave, Charleston, SC 29407. In these Terms, "Charlestock," "we," "us," and "our" refer to that operation.

Eligibility and accounts

You must be at least 18 years old and able to enter into a binding contract to license an image or create an account on Charlestock. If you are using the site on behalf of an organization, you represent that you have authority to bind that organization to these Terms.

You are responsible for keeping your password confidential and for all activity that occurs under your account. Notify us at library@charlestock.com if you believe your account has been used without your permission.

Acceptable use

When you use the site, you agree not to:

• Scrape, mass-download, mirror, or build a competing catalog from any portion of the site.
• Use automated tools or bots to access the site in a way that places excessive load on our systems.
• Bypass, disable, or interfere with any security feature, watermark, rate limit, or access control.
• Use the site to send spam, malware, or unlawful content.
• Misrepresent your identity, impersonate another person, or use a false email address.
• Use images previewed on the site without first licensing them, except as expressly permitted (e.g., shared comp links for evaluation).
• Use Charlestock content to train artificial intelligence or machine-learning models, or as input to any generative tool.
• Reverse-engineer, decompile, or attempt to extract the source code of the site beyond what is openly served to your browser.

Intellectual property

The Charlestock name, logo, website design, copy, layout, and underlying software are owned by Charlestock or its licensors and are protected by copyright, trademark, and other intellectual property laws. These Terms grant you no rights in those assets beyond the right to view and use the site for its intended purpose.

The images and Community Packs available for purchase are owned by Charlestock or its contributing photographers. The rights you receive when you buy a license are defined entirely by the License Agreement and your individual license certificate. Visiting the site does not grant any license to use the imagery.

Purchases and payment

Prices, license tiers, and Community Pack pricing are listed on the site and may change. The price shown at checkout is the price you pay. We do not collect sales tax separately at this time; if that changes, the tax will be itemized at checkout.

Payments are processed by Stripe. You authorize us to charge the payment method you provide for the order total displayed at checkout. Refunds, if any, are governed by our Refund Policy.

Third-party links and services

The site may link to third-party websites or services (for example, the privacy policies of our payment processor or analytics provider). We do not control those sites and are not responsible for their content, terms, or privacy practices.

Disclaimers

The site and its content are provided on an "AS IS" and "AS AVAILABLE" basis. To the maximum extent permitted by law, we disclaim all warranties, express or implied, including merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose, non-infringement, and any warranty arising from a course of dealing or usage of trade. We do not warrant that the site will be uninterrupted, error-free, or free of harmful components.

Limitation of liability

To the maximum extent permitted by law, Charlestock and Ellis Creek LLC will not be liable for any indirect, incidental, special, consequential, exemplary, or punitive damages, or any loss of profits, revenue, data, goodwill, or other intangible loss, arising out of or related to your use of the site, even if advised of the possibility of such damages.

Our total cumulative liability arising out of or related to these Terms or the site will not exceed the greater of (a) the amount you have paid to Charlestock in the twelve months immediately preceding the event giving rise to the claim, or (b) one hundred U.S. dollars ($100).

Indemnification

You agree to defend, indemnify, and hold harmless Charlestock and Ellis Creek LLC from any claim, demand, loss, or expense (including reasonable attorneys' fees) arising out of your violation of these Terms, your misuse of the site, or your use of licensed images outside the scope of your license.

Termination

We may suspend or terminate your access to the site at any time if we reasonably believe you have violated these Terms, the License Agreement, or applicable law. Sections of these Terms that by their nature should survive termination (intellectual property, disclaimers, limitation of liability, indemnification, governing law) will survive.

Governing law and disputes

These Terms are governed by the laws of the State of South Carolina, without regard to its conflict of laws principles. The parties agree to first attempt to resolve any dispute informally by contacting library@charlestock.com. If a dispute cannot be resolved informally within thirty days, it may be brought exclusively in the state or federal courts located in Charleston County, South Carolina, and you consent to the personal jurisdiction of those courts.

Changes

We may update these Terms from time to time. Material changes will be reflected in the "Effective" date above and, where appropriate, announced to account holders by email. Your continued use of the site after a change takes effect constitutes your acceptance of the updated Terms.

Entire agreement

These Terms, together with the License Agreement, the Privacy Policy, the Refund Policy, and the DMCA / Copyright policy, constitute the entire agreement between you and Charlestock concerning the site. If any provision is held unenforceable, the remaining provisions will remain in effect.