What Every Writer (and you, too!) Needs to Know About Terms of Service RIGHT NOW!

If you only ever read one thing I write, let it be this!

This has come up about once a week this year for me, so I am sensing a portent and feel obligated to say something. Even if I only save one person, this will be so worth it!

READ THE TERMS OF SERVICE BEFORE YOU SUBMIT ANYTHING ANYWHERE!

I am totally serious about this. And it bears repeating.

READ THE TERMS OF SERVICE BEFORE YOU SUBMIT ANYTHING ANYWHERE!

This has come up at every convention I have been to this year, as well as in online discussions.

When you submit a story, or anything else to a website, you are entering a binding, legal contract. You know those long, don’t ever bother to read them things every website makes you agree to before you can use their site? They are important. The are called End User Licence Agreements (EULA) or Terms of Service (TOS).

It’s one thing to sign up for something and think, yeah, yeah, whatever, because we all do it, and if something is really over the top, the law will probably find on your side, and you’re probably not risking much more than some personal information anyway.

BUT, when you upload content somewhere, whether you type it in or attach a file, you might be giving your rights to it away.

I’m not going to name names, for fear of our modern litigious society, but there have been some astounding recent examples of why you really need to read the EULA before you use a website.

There was a call for sequels to a popular movie. Send in your ideas and maybe you will be the one chosen to write the next movie! Yay! But when you read the EULA, all submissions became the property of the company you submitted it to. And they could do whatever they wanted with them. And they didn’t have to pay you. Ever.

There have been popular sites that have had problems with photos. Either the site claimed some or all rights to photos you uploaded, or other users did. Not cool to find your family photo is making someone $$$ while you get nothing but humiliation out of it.

Here is an example snippet from a EULA that I hope everyone read and understood before they submitted their stuff:

“You grant us a nonexclusive, royalty-free, worldwide, perpetual, and irrevocable right to copy, transmit, modify, adapt, publish, translate, create derivative works from, distribute, and display any information, data, Work, or any other information associated with your Work (collectively the “Submitted Materials”) you submit to us via the Services in any media or format.”

That basically means that, yes you still own the story you wrote, but we can make whatever we want out of it, including movies, books, video games, and action figures about it, and then sequels to those if we want, and we never have to pay you anything. This is not a good deal for you. And generally, any recourse you have to contest this when you decide you didn’t like it was also covered in the EULA, and you’re not going to like what those say either.

Many “contests”, “publishing companies”, “film studios”, and others have these same kind of EULA’s. Beware of them. I put these in quotes, because the real, legitimate ones do not. At least not yet. As we move on, and more and more novices get suckered by these traps, I would guess more and more business will try to cheat and steal ideas like this.

Beware. Be smart. Read before agreeing.

Oh, and one last thing. Don’t trust a company representative to tell you the truth when they “explain” it to you. Seriously.