Terms of Service

1. Acceptance of Terms

By accessing or using Dictato and the dicta.to website (together, the "Services"), operated by Obsidian IT Consulting SRL, you agree to be bound by these Terms of Service. If you do not accept these terms, please do not use the Services.

The Services are operated by Obsidian IT Consulting SRL, a company registered in Belgium:
Boulevard Lambermont 225 box 2, 1030 Brussels, Belgium
Company and VAT number: BE 0797.487.775

2. Service Description

Dictato is a macOS application that turns speech into text. Transcription runs on your own Mac using on-device models, and the app then inserts the resulting text into whichever application has your cursor. Optional on-device steps can add punctuation and capitalization or rewrite the text in a chosen tone. The features are described on this website and in the user manual. Dictato is distributed as a direct download, outside the Mac App Store.

Dictato requires macOS 14 (Sonoma) or later on a Mac with Apple Silicon (M1 or newer). To work, it needs macOS permissions you grant yourself: Microphone access to record, and Accessibility access to type text into other applications. Automation access is needed only if you use per-website rules. An internet connection is needed to download the app, to download a transcription model the first time you use it, and to activate or move your licence, which also checks in with us from time to time. Dictation itself works offline.

We keep developing Dictato and may change or remove individual features, in particular where a feature depends on a third-party component or on a version of macOS that is no longer supported. We will not remove a feature that is central to what you paid for without offering you an equivalent or a refund. If we ever stop distributing Dictato, the licences already issued keep working on the versions you have installed. Where a change affects your use of the app more than marginally, we give you the notice described in section 11 and you may end this licence and ask for a refund on the terms set out there.

3. User Account

3.1 Account Creation

Buying a licence creates an account tied to your purchase email address. You agree to:

Provide accurate and complete information
Be at least 18 years old
Maintain only one account per person
Keep your licence key confidential

3.2 Account Security

You are responsible for maintaining the confidentiality of your licence key. You agree to notify us immediately of any unauthorized use of your account at al@obsidian-it.be.

3.3 Account Deletion

You may ask us to delete your account at any time by writing to al@obsidian-it.be. Your data is then removed in accordance with our Privacy Policy. Because your licence is a lifetime licence, we never delete it for inactivity: it stays valid however long you go without using the app. Deleting the record attached to your licence ends that licence, so we will tell you before we do it.

4. Purchase and Payments

4.1 Price

Dictato costs 19.99 € including VAT as a one-time purchase: a lifetime licence with updates included. There is no subscription, no renewal, and no usage limit. A 7-day free trial with full functionality is available before purchase, with no credit card required.

Updates are included for as long as we keep developing Dictato, and in any event for as long as the law requires us to keep the app in conformity. We may change the price at any time. A new price applies only to purchases made after the change and never affects a licence you already own.

4.2 Payment Processing

Payments are handled by our payment partner, Polar, which acts as the seller of record. Polar sells the licence to you, issues your invoice, and collects any applicable VAT, so your purchase is also subject to Polar's terms. We never see your card details. This means your purchase contract is with Polar, while your licence to use Dictato and the support around it come from us. You can always write to us first and we will deal with Polar on your behalf.

4.3 Refunds

A 7-day free trial lets you test everything before you pay. If you still change your mind, write to al@obsidian-it.be within 14 days of your purchase and we will refund you, no questions asked. The refund is processed by Polar, and your licence stops working once it is issued. This does not affect any statutory right you have as a consumer.

4.4 Right of Withdrawal

If you are a consumer in the European Union, you have 14 days from the day of your purchase to withdraw from it, without giving a reason and without cost. To withdraw, send a clear statement to that effect to al@obsidian-it.be, or to Polar, the seller of record, before the 14 days are over. We do not ask you to give up this right, so it applies in full even if you have already downloaded and used the app. We refund you within 14 days of receiving your notice, using the payment method you used, and your licence stops working. The 7-day trial is free and involves no purchase, so there is nothing to withdraw from.

You may use this model form, though you do not have to:

To Obsidian IT Consulting SRL, Boulevard Lambermont 225 box 2, 1030 Brussels, Belgium, al@obsidian-it.be, or to Polar as seller of record: I hereby give notice that I withdraw from my contract for the purchase of Dictato. Ordered on [date]. Name of consumer. Address of consumer. Date.

4.5 Your Licence

Your licence runs on one Mac at a time, and you can move it whenever you want. Install Dictato on the other Mac, enter the same licence key, and it activates there. The Mac you came from stops being the licensed one.

You can move it up to 3 times per 30 days, and every move counts, including moving back to a Mac you were on before. That allowance is there so you never lose access when something comes up: a repair, a hardware swap, a holiday where you need Dictato on a second Mac. It only prevents one key from being used across many machines. Our Privacy Policy explains what the app sends us to make this work.

5. Acceptable Use

You agree NOT to:

Use the Services for any illegal purpose
Attempt to reverse engineer, decompile, or disassemble any part of the Services, except where the law gives you that right, in particular to achieve interoperability with other software
Share your licence key with others or use multiple accounts to circumvent limits
Use automated tools to abuse the Services or bypass rate limits
Work around, disable, or tamper with the licensing or trial mechanism
Interfere with or disrupt the Services' infrastructure

6. Intellectual Property

Dictato, its interface, its branding, the dicta.to website and the code we wrote are the property of Obsidian IT Consulting SRL and are protected by copyright, trademark, and other intellectual property laws. Dictato also includes third-party and open source components, which remain the property of their authors and are governed by their own licences. Those components are named in section 7 and listed with their licences in the app, under About.

You are granted a limited, non-exclusive licence to use Dictato in accordance with these Terms, for your own use, personal or professional. Using it for your work, your clients, or your business is expressly allowed. The licence is personal to you: it covers one user on one Mac at a time, and equipping several people requires one licence per person.

7. Third-Party Services

Dictato runs transcription and text models produced by third parties, including Whisper (OpenAI), Parakeet (NVIDIA), Qwen3 (Alibaba), Gemma (Google), and Apple's own on-device speech and Apple Intelligence frameworks. Those components remain governed by their respective licences. Some are bundled with the app; others are downloaded on first use from their publisher's model repository. Unless explicitly stated, we are not affiliated with, endorsed by, or sponsored by any third party.

8. Disclaimer of Warranties

We provide the Services with reasonable care and skill. We do not promise that they will be uninterrupted, error free, or secure, or that any transcription will be accurate.

If you are a consumer, you keep the legal guarantee of conformity under Belgian and European law: the app must match its description and work as you can reasonably expect, and if it does not, you can ask us to bring it into conformity, to reduce the price, or to end the contract and be refunded. That guarantee runs for two years from the day the app is supplied to you, and nothing in these Terms limits it.

Speech recognition is statistical: it makes mistakes, and the optional proofread and tone steps rewrite your words. Always reread dictated text before you send, sign, file, or publish it.

9. Limitation of Liability

To the maximum extent permitted by law, Obsidian IT Consulting SRL is not liable for indirect or consequential damage, such as loss of profits, loss of data, or loss of use, arising out of or related to your use of the Services.

Our total liability for any claim arising from the Services shall not exceed the price you paid for your licence.

Nothing in these Terms excludes or limits our liability for fraud, wilful misconduct, gross negligence, death or personal injury, or failure to perform an essential obligation of this contract, nor any liability that cannot be excluded under Belgian or European law. Your statutory rights as a consumer remain unaffected.

10. Indemnification

This section applies only if you use the Services other than as a consumer, for example as a company or in the course of a profession. In that case, if a third party brings a claim against us because you used the Services unlawfully or in breach of these Terms, you agree to cover the reasonable costs and damages we actually incur, to the extent the claim is caused by your fault, and never beyond the amount we would be liable for under section 9. This does not cover anything caused by us. If you are a consumer, this section does not apply to you and only the general rules of law do.

11. Modifications to Terms

We may change these Terms when there is a valid reason, such as a change in the law, in the features of the app, or in the way we operate the Services. We publish the new version on this page and, if the change affects your rights and we have your email address, we tell you at least 30 days before it takes effect. If you do not accept the change, you may stop using the Services, and where the change substantially reduces what you paid for, you may end this licence and ask us for a refund that reflects the price you paid and how long you have had the app.

12. Termination

We may suspend or end your access to the Services if you seriously or repeatedly break these Terms, in particular if you use them unlawfully or tamper with the licensing or trial mechanism. Unless the law or an urgent security reason prevents it, we tell you the reason first and give you a chance to put things right. If we end a valid licence for any other reason, we refund you.

13. Governing Law

These Terms are governed by Belgian law. If you are a consumer, this choice does not deprive you of the protection of the mandatory rules of the country where you live.

If you are a consumer, you may bring proceedings against us before the Belgian courts or before the courts of the country where you live, and we may bring proceedings against you only before the courts of the country where you live. For any other user, the courts of Brussels, Belgium, have exclusive jurisdiction.

If we cannot settle a dispute, you may refer it free of charge to the Belgian Consumer Mediation Service, Boulevard du Roi Albert II 8 box 1, 1000 Brussels, contact@consumerombudsman.be, www.consumerombudsman.be.

14. Severability

If any provision of these Terms is found to be unenforceable, the remaining provisions will continue in full force and effect.

15. Contact

For questions about these Terms of Service, please contact us at: al@obsidian-it.be