Automated Dead Man's Switch / Escrow

1. What Is the Dead Man's Switch

Screenplay Studio is developed and maintained by Northem Development, currently as a solo development effort. To protect against sudden incapacitation or unforeseen life events, the project relies on an automated dead man's switch and codebase escrow. If the project can no longer be maintained, the full codebase will be released publicly automatically so that users can continue running the software on their own infrastructure.

This is not an internal feature toggle. This is a guarantee that the software will never die with its maintainer. If I can't keep going, you keep going.

2. Why It Exists

Solo-maintained projects carry a fundamental risk: what happens when the single maintainer is suddenly incapacitated and cannot manually hand off the project? The automated dead man's switch addresses this directly:

• Project survival: Your screenplays, scripts, and production data should not become inaccessible because one person can no longer work on the project.
• User trust: You are investing time and creative work into this platform. You deserve a guarantee that your tools won't vanish.
• Community empowerment: The open-source community can fork, improve, and maintain the project independently if the original maintainer steps away.
• No vendor lock-in: Unlike proprietary software where discontinuation means total loss, open-source ensures the software lives on regardless of the company's fate.

3. When It Activates (60-Day Trigger)

The automated dead man's switch is triggered if the primary administrator account is entirely inactive for 60 consecutive days.

• If the developer is incapacitated, hospitalized, or deceased, the 60-day inactivity timer will lapse.
• Once the timer lapses, an automated protocol executes the open-source release.
• The codebase is pushed from private repositories/escrow to public repositories automatically.
• The developer can also trigger this release manually in the event of a planned shutdown.

Because this is an automated system designed for incapacitation, there may not be a 30-day manual warning period. The 60 days of inactivity serves as the delay before the codebase goes public.

4. Codebase Release

Upon activation of the switch, the complete source code of Screenplay Studio will be made publicly available under an open-source license. This includes:

• The full application source code (frontend, backend, and all supporting services).
• Database schemas and migration files.
• Configuration files and deployment guides.
• Documentation for self-hosting and setup.

The code will be published on GitHub and mirrored to at least one additional platform to ensure redundancy. The license will permit free use, modification, and distribution , ensuring the community can maintain and improve the software independently.

5. Self-Hosting

Screenplay Studio is designed to be self-hostable. After the kill switch activates, users with the technical capability to do so can:

• Deploy their own instance of the platform on their own infrastructure.
• Maintain their own data and user accounts independently.
• Modify and customise the software to suit their needs.
• Contribute improvements back to the community fork.

Self-hosting requires technical knowledge including Node.js, PostgreSQL, and Supabase (or a compatible alternative). The release will include documentation to assist with setup, but self-hosted instances are not supported by Northem Development after the project transitions to community maintenance.

Since the platform operates offline-first, your local files on your computer remain entirely unaffected and fully yours.

6. What Happens to Your Data

Your data remains yours. Here is exactly what happens:

• Local Desktop Files: All files saved locally on your computer via the desktop app will remain fully accessible, even if the online service goes down.
• At shutdown: The hosted platform at screenplaystudio.fun will cease operation. All data remaining on the hosted platform after the shutdown date will be permanently deleted in accordance with our data retention policies and Privacy Policy.
• Self-hosted instances: Users who deploy their own instance before shutdown retain full control of their data on their own infrastructure. The codebase release enables this transition.
• No data selling: In the event of project shutdown, user data will never be sold, transferred to a third party for commercial purposes, or used for any purpose other than facilitating the transition to community maintenance.

7. Community Continuity

The automated dead man's switch is designed to enable seamless community takeover:

• Fork and maintain: Any community member or organisation can fork the released codebase and continue maintaining it as a separate project.
• Community governance: The community is free to establish its own governance model, contribution guidelines, and release processes for the forked project.
• No orphaned users: Because the code is open-source, there is no scenario where users are left without options. The software exists independently of any single maintainer or company.
• Existing contributions: All community contributions made to the project remain available under the open-source license, ensuring no work is lost.

8. Contact

If you have questions about the dead man's switch, the project's continuity plans, or how to prepare for self-hosting, please contact us: