Hosting user-generated content — comments, posts, uploads, profile bios — without defining who owns that content and what license the platform holds creates two opposing legal risks simultaneously. If your Terms are silent, courts may rule you have no license to display user content at all, making your core product feature unlawful to operate. Conversely, if your Terms claim ownership of user content without clear language, you expose yourself to GDPR Art. 6(1)(a) violations (processing personal data beyond the stated purpose) and user trust destruction when the clause is discovered. EU-DSA-2022/2065-Art14 requires UGC platforms to state moderation policies and content rights clearly.
Medium because undefined user content licensing simultaneously risks operating without a valid license to display content and violating GDPR data processing consent boundaries.
Add a user content section to your Terms of Service that explicitly states ownership, license scope, and termination conditions. Do not claim more rights than you need to operate the service.
## Your Content
You retain all ownership rights to content you post, upload, or submit
("Your Content"). By posting Your Content, you grant [Company] a non-exclusive,
royalty-free, worldwide license to use, display, reproduce, and distribute
Your Content solely for the purpose of operating and providing the Service.
This license ends when you delete Your Content or close your account, except
for content other users have already interacted with (which may be retained
in anonymized form to preserve context).
You represent that you own Your Content or have the rights to post it, and
that Your Content complies with our Acceptable Use Policy.
We do not claim ownership of Your Content and will not sell it to third
parties without your consent.
ID: legal-pages-compliance.content-clarity.user-content-licensing
Severity: medium
What to look for: Enumerate every relevant item. If the application allows users to create, post, or upload content (text posts, images, documents, comments, reviews, profiles with custom content), check the Terms of Service for a section on user content. It should address: (1) who owns the content the user creates ("You retain ownership of content you post"), (2) what license the user grants the platform to display and use their content, (3) whether the platform claims any ownership or right to sublicense user content to third parties, (4) whether the license terminates when the user deletes content or closes their account, and (5) any representations the user makes (that they own the content and have the right to license it). For read-only applications with no UGC features, this section is not applicable.
Pass criteria: At least 1 of the following conditions is met. UGC features are present AND the Terms of Service includes a user content section that specifies: user retains ownership of their content, the platform receives a license (with defined scope and duration) to display and distribute the content, and representations about ownership.
Fail criteria: UGC features present but no user content licensing terms exist — either because the ToS is absent entirely, or because the ToS exists but has no user content section. User content section claims ownership over user-created content without clear justification. License granted to the platform is unbounded (perpetual, irrevocable, worldwide sublicensable) with no user benefit or explanation. Important: if the application has UGC features but no ToS at all, this check fails (do not skip — the absence of the ToS is itself the violation).
Skip (N/A) when: Application has no UGC features — no comments, posts, uploads, profiles with user-generated fields, reviews, or messages. Detection: no upload libraries, no posts/comments/uploads tables, no social or community features in the project. If no UGC features are present, mark as skip (not pass).
Detail on fail: Specify the issue. Example: "Application has a comment system and user profile with custom bios. Terms of Service has no user content section — no ownership declaration, no license grant." or "User content section found but claims 'you assign all rights in your content to [Company]' — full assignment without explanation or carve-outs.".
Remediation: Add a user content section to your Terms of Service:
## Your Content
You retain all ownership rights to content you post, upload, or submit to [Service Name]
("Your Content"). By posting Your Content, you grant [Company Name] a non-exclusive,
royalty-free, worldwide license to use, display, reproduce, and distribute Your Content
solely for the purpose of operating and providing the Service.
This license ends when you delete Your Content or close your account, except for
content that other users have already interacted with (e.g., comments that have received
replies may be retained in anonymized form to preserve conversation context).
You represent and warrant that:
- You own Your Content or have the rights to post it
- Your Content does not infringe the intellectual property rights of any third party
- Your Content complies with our Acceptable Use Policy
We do not claim ownership of Your Content and will not sell it to third parties
without your consent.