Terms of Use

1. What Spore is — and isn't

Spore is a reference and learning tool. It suggests possible species for a photo using an automated identification service, shows information and look-alikes from our species guide, and lets you keep a personal foraging journal.

• Identifications are automated estimates. They can be incomplete or simply wrong, especially with unclear photos, young or damaged specimens, rare species or regional variation.
• Species information, including edibility and toxicity labels, is general guidance compiled from sources we believe to be reliable. It may contain errors or omissions and may not reflect your region or individual sensitivities (allergies, intolerances, interactions).
• Spore is not medical, nutritional, or professional mycological advice, and it does not replace a qualified expert, a doctor or a poison information centre.

You are solely responsible for what you pick, handle, cook, eat or give to others. Foraging also has risks beyond identification (terrain, weather, ticks, contaminated sites); please take care.

2. Who can use Spore

You may use Spore if you can form a binding agreement with us, or if a parent or guardian has agreed to these Terms on your behalf. Children should forage only under the supervision of an experienced adult.

3. Acceptable use

When using Spore, you agree not to:

• use Spore in a way that breaks the law, including local foraging rules, protected-species rules and landowner rights;
• send automated or bulk requests, scrape our species guide, or try to get around usage limits, app checks or other technical protections;
• copy, modify, reverse-engineer or resell the app or its content, except where the law expressly allows it;
• upload content you have no right to use, or content that is unlawful or harmful;
• interfere with or disrupt the app, our servers or our providers.

We may suspend or block access that breaks these rules or puts the service or other users at risk.

4. Free plan and fair use

Spore is free to download. The free plan includes a limited number of identifications per day (currently three), which resets each calendar day. Spore Premium removes this daily limit.

To protect the service from abuse and automated use, all users — including Premium users — are subject to technical fair-use limits on the number of identifications per device and per network each day. These limits are set well above normal personal use. If you reach one, Spore will tell you and you can try again the next day. We may adjust limits and features over time; we won’t reduce what you have paid for during a paid period except where necessary for security, legal or technical reasons.

5. Spore Premium, subscriptions and payments

Spore Premium is available as an auto-renewing yearly subscription or as a one-time Lifetime purchase. Prices are shown in the app before you buy and may vary by country.

• Payment. Purchases are made through Apple’s App Store and charged to your Apple ID when you confirm the purchase. Apple is the seller of record and its Media Services Terms also apply.
• Auto-renewal. The yearly subscription renews automatically at the then-current price unless you cancel at least 24 hours before the end of the current period. Your Apple ID is charged for renewal within the 24 hours before the period ends.
• Managing and cancelling. You can manage or cancel your subscription at any time in your Apple ID settings: on iPhone, open Settings → [your name] → Subscriptions. Deleting the app does not cancel a subscription. If you cancel, Premium stays active until the end of the period you have already paid for.
• Lifetime. The Lifetime purchase is a one-time payment that unlocks Premium for as long as we offer Spore and Spore Premium, on devices signed in with the same Apple ID (and, where enabled, Family Sharing).
• Refunds. Refunds are handled by Apple under its policies, not by us. You can request one at reportaproblem.apple.com. Any statutory right of withdrawal you have as a consumer is exercised through Apple.
• Restoring. If you reinstall Spore or get a new iPhone, use “Restore” on the Premium screen in the app to restore your purchase.
• Price changes. If the subscription price changes, Apple will notify you in advance and, where required, ask for your consent before renewing at the new price.

6. Intellectual property and attributions

The Spore app, its design, software and our own species guide content are owned by Björkén Media AB or our licensors and are protected by law. Subject to these Terms and the Apple Standard EULA, we grant you a personal, non-exclusive, non-transferable licence to use the app on Apple devices you own or control.

Third-party content

• Some species descriptions are based on, or link to, articles from Wikipedia, available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 licence (CC BY-SA 4.0). Where we adapt such text, the adaptation is shared under the same licence.
• Many species photos come from Wikimedia Commons. Each image is the work of its author and is used under its own licence (for example public domain, CC BY or CC BY-SA); the author and licence are listed on the image’s page on Wikimedia Commons.
• Photo identification is powered by Kindwise (FlowerChecker s.r.o.).

Wikipedia and Wikimedia Commons are trademarks of the Wikimedia Foundation; their use here does not imply endorsement. If you believe content in Spore infringes your rights, contact us at hello@sporeapp.co and we will look into it promptly.

Your content

Photos and notes you create remain yours. When you submit a photo for identification, you give us and our identification provider permission to process it solely to provide the identification. Your journal stays on your device (see our Privacy Policy).

7. Disclaimer

To the extent permitted by law, Spore and all content in it are provided “as is” and “as available”, without warranties of any kind, whether express or implied, including warranties of accuracy, completeness, fitness for a particular purpose and uninterrupted or error-free operation. We do not guarantee that any identification, edibility label, safety warning or other information is correct.

8. Limitation of liability

To the fullest extent permitted by applicable law:

• we are not liable for any illness, injury, death, loss or damage arising from picking, handling, preparing or consuming any mushroom or other organism, or from relying on any identification or information in Spore;
• we are not liable for indirect, incidental, special or consequential damages, or for loss of data, profits or goodwill;
• our total liability to you for all claims relating to Spore is limited to the amount you paid for Spore Premium in the 12 months before the claim arose.

Nothing in these Terms excludes or limits liability that cannot be excluded or limited under applicable law — for example liability for intent or gross negligence — or affects your mandatory statutory rights as a consumer.

9. Apple Standard EULA

Your use of the app is also governed by Apple’s Licensed Application End User License Agreement (Standard EULA). These Terms add to the Standard EULA; if they conflict regarding your licence to use the app, the Standard EULA applies.

These Terms are between you and Björkén Media AB, not Apple. Apple is not responsible for the app or its content, has no obligation to provide maintenance or support for it, and is not responsible for addressing any claims relating to the app. Apple and its subsidiaries are third-party beneficiaries of the Standard EULA and may enforce it against you.

10. Changes and termination

We may update Spore and these Terms from time to time. If we make significant changes to these Terms, we will update the effective date and, where appropriate, let you know in the app. Continuing to use Spore after changes take effect means you accept them. You can stop using Spore at any time by deleting the app (and cancelling any subscription in your Apple ID settings). We may stop offering Spore or any feature, and may end your access if you seriously or repeatedly break these Terms.

11. Governing law and disputes

These Terms are governed by the laws of Sweden, without regard to its conflict-of-law rules. Disputes will be decided by the Swedish courts. If you are a consumer, you also keep the protection of the mandatory laws of the country where you live and may bring proceedings there. Please contact us first — most issues can be sorted out quickly by email.

12. Contact

Björkén Media AB, Sweden. Email: hello@sporeapp.co. For help with the app, see Support.