Terms and Conditions

Effective date: 9/10/2026 Last updated: 9/10/2026

These Terms of Service (“Terms”) govern your use of the websites, mail-in film processing, scanning, printing, digital delivery, and photo storage services (together, the “Service”) provided by Swan Photo Labs Inc., DBA The Darkroom (“The Darkroom,” “we,” “us”), a California company located in San Clemente, California.

By creating an account, placing an order, or using the Service, you agree to these Terms and to our [Privacy Policy], which is incorporated into these Terms. If you do not agree, please do not use the Service.

Please read Section 13 carefully: it contains an arbitration agreement and class action waiver that affect how disputes between us are resolved, and it includes your right to opt out.

1. Eligibility and Your Account

You must be 18 or older to register or place an order. You agree that the information you provide at registration and afterward is accurate and kept up to date — especially your email address, which is how we communicate about your account and orders. You are responsible for keeping your password confidential and for all activity under your account; notify us immediately at [email protected] if you believe your account has been compromised. We may require a password change if we believe your credentials are no longer secure.

You may use the Service for personal or professional purposes, including commercial photography, subject to these Terms. Wholesale accounts are governed by these same Terms together with any separate wholesale agreement.

2. Orders

No contract exists between you and The Darkroom until we accept your order by confirmation email, SMS, or other communication. All prices are in US dollars and valid until changed by us. Prices exclude shipping charges (added at checkout) and any import duties imposed by the destination country. Delivery dates are estimates only.

Abandoned orders. Orders that remain unclaimed — including orders with a balance due where we have received no customer communication — for 60 days are considered abandoned, and the associated physical media may be securely destroyed.

3. Your Film and Physical Media — Limit of Liability

This section states the essential agreement under which every photo lab operates: film is irreplaceable, and our liability is limited to replacement media.

By submitting any tangible or electronic media — film, negatives, slides, prints, cards, discs, or devices — to us for any purpose (processing, printing, scanning, duplication, storage, transmission, or other handling), you agree that if it is lost or damaged by The Darkroom or our agents, even through our negligence or other fault, your sole remedy is replacement with an equivalent quantity and size of unexposed film or blank media, plus processing of the replacement media. Except for that replacement, our acceptance of your media is without further liability, and recovery of incidental or consequential damages is excluded. We provide no express or implied warranty regarding submitted media.

We strongly recommend against mailing us the only existing copy of images that are irreplaceable to you without understanding this limitation. It is the industry-standard condition under which film processing is commercially possible.

4. Digital Photo Storage and the Storage Subscription

Included storage. When we deliver your scans, we store them free of charge for a minimum of 60 days from delivery so you can download and share them. You are responsible for downloading your images and maintaining your own backup copies. After the free period, files are permanently deleted in the ordinary course of our server maintenance, as described in our Privacy Policy. Deleted files cannot be recovered.

Storage subscription. We offer an optional storage subscription for $18 per year. While your subscription is active, we store the photos in your account for as long as you remain subscribed. Subscribing also re-enables your expired albums within 24 hours, for orders uploaded within the previous 6 months (orders older than 6 months cannot be restored).

Automatic renewal disclosure. The storage subscription renews automatically each year, and the then-current annual fee will be charged to your payment method on file on each anniversary of your subscription until you cancel. You may cancel at any time in your account dashboard; cancellation takes effect at the end of the current paid term, and you will not be charged again. We do not refund partial subscription periods except where required by law. If a renewal payment fails and is not resolved, your subscription will lapse and your stored photos will become subject to the standard deletion schedule described above and in our Privacy Policy.

Not an archival backup service. The subscription is a convenience for storing and accessing your photos — it is not a substitute for your own backups. You should always keep copies of your images on a device or service specifically intended for backup. In the event of catastrophic data loss, our liability is limited as described in Sections 3 and 11.

5. Your Images: Ownership and License

You own your images. The Darkroom claims no ownership rights in any image in your account. So that we can operate the Service — process, scan, print, store, display, and deliver your images, and fulfill orders placed by you or by people you share your images with — you grant The Darkroom a non-exclusive, royalty-free license to use, copy, distribute, and display your images for those purposes only. When you share images with others, you permit the recipients to view, share, and order prints of those images.

6. Acceptable Use

You are responsible for all images and content you submit to the Service, and you must have the legal right to copy and print each image you upload, share, or order. Professional images provided by photographers, or taken from websites, magazines, or books, are protected by copyright and may not be processed through the Service without permission.

You agree not to use the Service:

• for any unlawful purpose;
• to submit, print, or transmit material that is unlawful, obscene, threatening, abusive, defamatory, or an invasion of privacy or publicity rights;
• to submit material that infringes any copyright, trademark, or other intellectual property or moral right of any party;
• to harm minors in any way, including any content that violates child sexual abuse and exploitation laws;
• to forge headers or manipulate identifiers to disguise the origin of any content;
• to transmit viruses, worms, or any code designed to damage or gain unauthorized access to the Service;
• to use the Service as a general-purpose image host for other websites (for example, hotlinking or embedding images stored on the Service into third-party sites); or
• to interfere with or disrupt the Service or its networks, or to provide false or misleading information to The Darkroom.

We do not monitor the content of customer accounts and have no obligation to do so; you are solely responsible for the content you provide. We comply with laws requiring the reporting of apparent child sexual abuse material.

7. Copyright Complaints (DMCA)

We respect intellectual property rights and expect our customers to do the same. If you believe your copyrighted work has been infringed through the Service, send a notice to our designated agent: Copyright Agent, The Darkroom, 946 Calle Amanecer #A, San Clemente, CA 92673, [email protected]. Your notice must include: (a) identification of the copyrighted work and of the material you believe infringes it, with enough detail for us to locate it; (b) your address, telephone number, and email; (c) a statement of your good-faith belief that the use is not authorized by the copyright owner, its agent, or the law; (d) a statement, under penalty of perjury, that the information in your notice is accurate and that you are the copyright owner or authorized to act for the owner; and (e) your physical or electronic signature.

We may remove or disable access to material identified in a valid notice and, in appropriate circumstances, will terminate the accounts of repeat infringers. If you believe material you posted was removed by mistake, you may send a counter-notice to the same agent containing the information required by 17 U.S.C. § 512(g)(3).

8. Trademarks and Site Content

“The Darkroom” and our logos are proprietary marks of Swan Photo Labs Inc. Photo Finale® is a mark of its respective owner, used in connection with print order processing. Nothing in the Service grants any license to use any mark, logo, or name. Except for your own images, The Darkroom owns the copyright and database rights in the Service and its contents, and you may not reproduce, distribute, or re-utilize that content without our permission.

9. Third-Party Links and Services

The Service may contain links to third-party websites, provided for convenience. We do not endorse and are not responsible for the content, availability, or privacy practices of other websites, and you use them at your own risk.

10. Availability, Suspension, and Termination

We use reasonable efforts to keep the Service available at all times, but the Service may be interrupted for maintenance, upgrades, emergency repairs, or failures beyond our control. We may, at any time: decline a registration; modify or suspend any part of the Service; or refuse or cancel any order, terminate your account, and delete content stored in it if, in our reasonable discretion, you violate these Terms or a regulatory authority requires it. Where practical, we will notify you and give you an opportunity to retrieve your images before account content is deleted, except where a violation of law or Section 6 is involved. We are not liable to you for modification, suspension, or discontinuance of the Service, subject to Section 4’s subscription commitments.

11. Disclaimer of Warranties and Limitation of Liability

We agree that our services will be carried out with reasonable skill and care and that goods supplied will be of satisfactory quality and reasonably fit for their purpose.

EXCEPT AS EXPRESSLY STATED IN THESE TERMS, THE SERVICE AND ALL RELATED PRODUCTS AND SERVICES ARE PROVIDED “AS IS,” AND ALL EXPRESS, IMPLIED, AND STATUTORY WARRANTIES — INCLUDING MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE, AND NON-INFRINGEMENT — ARE DISCLAIMED TO THE FULLEST EXTENT PERMITTED BY LAW.

YOUR SUBMISSION OF FILM OR DIGITAL CONTENT, AND ANY UPLOAD OR DOWNLOAD THROUGH THE SERVICE, IS AT YOUR OWN RISK. IN THE EVENT OF LOSS OF OR DAMAGE TO YOUR FILM OR MEDIA, OUR LIABILITY IS LIMITED TO REPLACEMENT MEDIA AND PROCESSING AS STATED IN SECTION 3. IN THE EVENT OF ANY OTHER MISTAKE BY THE DARKROOM, SUCH AS SHIPMENT OF A DEFECTIVE PRODUCT, THE DARKROOM’S LIABILITY IS LIMITED TO THE COST OF THE ORDER. TO THE FULLEST EXTENT ALLOWED BY LAW, THE DARKROOM SHALL NOT BE LIABLE FOR ANY INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL, CONSEQUENTIAL, SPECIAL, EXEMPLARY, OR PUNITIVE DAMAGES ARISING FROM THE SERVICE, EVEN IF ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGES, AND NOTWITHSTANDING ANY FAILURE OF ESSENTIAL PURPOSE OF ANY LIMITED REMEDY. SOME JURISDICTIONS DO NOT ALLOW CERTAIN LIMITATIONS, SO SOME OF THE ABOVE MAY NOT APPLY TO YOU; IN THAT CASE OUR LIABILITY IS LIMITED TO THE MAXIMUM EXTENT PERMITTED BY LAW.

12. Informal Resolution First

Before filing any claim, you and The Darkroom each agree to first contact the other and attempt in good faith to resolve the dispute informally for at least 30 days. Send disputes to [email protected] with the subject “Dispute” and a description of the issue and the resolution you seek. Most concerns are resolved this way, quickly and at no cost.

13. Arbitration Agreement and Class Action Waiver

Please read this section carefully. It affects your rights. You may opt out within 30 days, as described below.

Agreement to arbitrate. Except for the matters excluded below, you and The Darkroom agree that any dispute or claim arising out of or relating to these Terms or the Service will be resolved by binding individual arbitration administered by the American Arbitration Association (AAA) under its Consumer Arbitration Rules, rather than in court. The Federal Arbitration Act governs this section. Arbitration will be conducted in Orange County, California, or, at your election, by videoconference, telephone, or written submissions. AAA’s fee schedule for consumers will apply, and The Darkroom will pay arbitration fees where the rules or law require.

Exclusions. Either party may bring an individual claim in small claims court instead of arbitration. This section does not waive either party’s right to seek public injunctive relief where the law provides that such a right cannot be waived, and either party may seek temporary equitable relief in court to protect intellectual property pending arbitration.

Class action waiver. You and The Darkroom each agree that disputes will be brought only in an individual capacity, and not as a plaintiff or class member in any class, consolidated, or representative proceeding. The arbitrator may not consolidate claims or preside over any form of class proceeding. If this class action waiver is found unenforceable as to a particular claim, that claim (and only that claim) shall proceed in court.

Coordinated filings. If 25 or more similar arbitration demands are filed by or with the assistance of the same or coordinated counsel, the parties agree the AAA shall administer them in staged batches of up to 25, with a single set of filing fees per side per batch, and the parties shall cooperate in selecting bellwether proceedings; statutes of limitation are tolled for demands awaiting their batch.

30-day opt-out. You may reject this arbitration agreement and class action waiver, without any effect on your ability to use the Service, by emailing [email protected] with the subject “Arbitration Opt-Out” from your account email, including your name and mailing address, within 30 days of first accepting these Terms.

14. Governing Law and Venue

These Terms are governed by the laws of the State of California, without regard to conflict-of-law rules. Subject to Section 13, any dispute not resolved in arbitration shall be brought exclusively in the state or federal courts located in Orange County, California, and you and The Darkroom consent to their jurisdiction.

15. Changes to These Terms

We may amend these Terms from time to time. If you are a registered member, we will notify you of material changes by email to the address on your account, and we will update the “Last updated” date above. Your continued use of the Service after notice constitutes acceptance of the amended Terms. Material changes to Section 13 will not apply to disputes that arose before the change.

16. General

These Terms, together with the Privacy Policy and any wholesale agreement applicable to you, are the entire agreement between you and The Darkroom regarding the Service. Our failure to enforce any provision is not a waiver of it. If any provision is found invalid, the remainder of the Terms remains enforceable. You may not assign these Terms; we may assign them in connection with a merger, acquisition, or sale of assets, subject to the commitments in our Privacy Policy.

17. Contact

The Darkroom (Swan Photo Labs Inc.) 946 Calle Amanecer #A San Clemente, CA 92673 [email protected] — general questions, copyright notices, and disputes [email protected] — privacy requests