Content Usage Rights: What Creators Need to Know

When you collaborate with a brand on Social Cat, it's important to understand how content ownership and usage rights work. We want to make sure you're clear on what rights you retain, what rights you're granting to the brand, and what this means for your collaborations.

Yes! You retain ownership of your content.

Social Cat does not take ownership of the photos, videos, or other content you create as part of a collaboration.

However, under Section 12 of our Terms and Conditions, by participating in a collaboration, you grant the collaborating brand a licence to use the content you create for marketing and promotional purposes.

This means you can continue to share your work on your own social media accounts and feature it in your portfolio, while the brand can also use it for its own marketing.

The licence granted to the brand is worldwide, perpetual, royalty-free, and non-exclusive.

In simple terms:

• Worldwide: The brand can use your content internationally.

• Perpetual: The licence does not expire after a set period.

• Royalty-free: The brand does not need to pay an additional licensing fee to use the content covered by the collaboration.

• Non-exclusive: You can continue using your content yourself and working with other brands.

The brand can use your collaboration content across various marketing channels, including:

• Organic social media posts

• Paid social media advertising, including dark posts and retargeting

• The brand's website and apps

• Email marketing and newsletters

• In-store promotions and offline marketing materials

The brand may also edit, crop, resize, add captions or subtitles, translate, and create derivative versions of the content for marketing purposes.

Your name, voice, image, likeness, and bio may also be used to the extent reasonably needed for these purposes.

Unless the campaign specifically states otherwise, the brand is not required to tag or credit you when using your content.

You must share your collaboration content in the Social Cat chat with the brand, even if you've already published it on your social media account.

Uploading your content to the chat provides the brand with access to the content delivered as part of your collaboration, so it can use it in accordance with the licence agreed to under our Terms and Conditions.

For example, if you create a video for a skincare brand and publish it on Instagram, you should also share the video file in your Social Cat chat with that brand.

A link to your Instagram post alone may not provide the brand with the content file it needs for its marketing activities.

Please make sure you deliver the agreed content through the platform as part of completing your collaboration.

No. You cannot require an additional licensing fee for content covered by the licence in Section 12 of our Terms and Conditions.

The usage rights are part of the terms accepted when you join Social Cat and participate in a collaboration. They are not a separate add-on that the creator can charge for after the collaboration has been agreed upon.

This applies to gifted collaborations as well as paid collaborations. Receiving a gifted product rather than monetary compensation does not remove the usage rights granted to the brand under our Terms and Conditions.

For example, you cannot complete a gifted collaboration and then tell the brand it must pay an additional fee before it can use the content in an advertisement.

Similarly, for a paid collaboration, you cannot request an additional licensing payment after the collaboration is completed simply because the brand wants to use the content on another marketing channel covered by the licence.

If you have specific compensation or licensing requirements beyond the terms provided by Social Cat, these should be discussed and agreed upon with the brand before accepting the collaboration. Please note that separate terms cannot automatically override the licence already granted under our Terms and Conditions.

Yes. Although brands receive broad usage rights, those rights are not unlimited.

Under Section 12, brands cannot use your content, likeness, or handle in the following contexts unless the campaign expressly agrees to it:

• Misleading or defamatory statements about you

• Political advertising or partisan campaigning

• Adult, or sexually explicit content

• Content promoting hate, discrimination, or violence

• Content promoting alcohol, tobacco, vaping, gambling, firearms, prescription medication, or other regulated products outside the brand's normal product range

Brands also cannot modify your content in a way that materially distorts your views or harms your reputation.

These restrictions are in place to help protect creators while allowing brands to use collaboration content for legitimate marketing purposes.

Once a collaboration is completed, neither party can retroactively change the agreed licence.

Under our Terms and Conditions, a takedown of published content can be requested only in cases of material breach, such as unlawful or off-brief content.

Simply changing your mind about the usage rights or deciding to charge an additional licensing fee after completing the collaboration is not, by itself, a basis for requiring the brand to stop using the content.

If you believe a brand is using your content in a way that violates the restrictions outlined above, please contact the Social Cat team so we can review the situation.

If you have particular expectations around content deliverables, compensation, usage, or other collaboration requirements, make sure you discuss them with the brand before accepting the collaboration.

It's always best to clarify expectations in advance so both parties understand what is included in the agreement.

Keep in mind that the licence provided under Section 12 of our Terms and Conditions already grants the brand the usage rights described in this article. Any additional agreement must be considered alongside those existing terms and cannot automatically replace them.

Still have questions? 🤔 You can always contact us via email - hello@thesocialcat.com