Copyright & Content Policy

The Sharing Life — Copyright & Content Policy

Last updated: 20 September 2025

 

1) What this policy covers

This policy explains (a) who owns what on The Sharing Life, (b) the licence you give us when you post user-generated content (“UGC”), and (c) how we handle copyright and related takedown notices in the UK (notice-and-takedown) and, if you opt in, the US DMCA process. It sits alongside our Terms of Use, Privacy Policy and Community Guidelines.

Definitions. “Content” = anything on our services (text, images, audio, video, code, profiles, posts, comments, reactions, attachments, and metadata). “You” = the account holder posting/uploading. “We/Us” = The Sharing Life Ltd (or equivalent operating entity).

 

2) Who owns content

  • Your content remains yours. You keep all rights you already hold in the UGC you post. Even a short comment can be protected as your copyright work. (General guidance recognises comments are copyright to the user. TermsFeed
  • Our content remains ours. Our site/app, brand, design, trademarks, code, databases and editorial content are owned by us and/or our licensors.

 

3) The licence you grant to The Sharing Life

To operate and promote a community platform, we need a broad but sensible licence:

You grant The Sharing Life a worldwide, non-exclusive, royalty-free, transferable and sublicensable licence to host, store, cache, reproduce, adapt, edit, translate, reformat, create derivative works from, publish, publicly perform and display, distribute and otherwise use your UGC for the purposes of operating, improving, moderating, securing, backing up, analysing, and promoting the service (including on our social channels, emails, and in-product features).

  • Duration. This licence lasts until you delete your UGC from the service. After deletion, we may retain backup, archival, legal-hold and evidence copies; we won’t re-publish deleted UGC except if required by law, to enforce our terms, or to comply with regulator/court requests.
  • Moral rights. Where permitted by law, you consent to us making editorial adaptations (e.g., formatting, excerpting, headline tweaks) and agree not to assert moral rights in ways that prevent those service operations. We will not misattribute your content.
  • Commercial/brand uses. We will seek additional consent for uses that are outside platform operation/promotion (e.g., paid third-party advertising creative that features your distinct post), unless you were specifically participating in a sponsored activity with clear terms.

 

4) Your promises when posting

You confirm that:

  • you own the UGC or have written permission from the rights holder(s) to post and licence it to us as above (this mirrors standard community terms and avoids “I posted it but it wasn’t mine” problems. www.ofcom.org.uk
  • your UGC doesn’t infringe others’ IP, privacy or publicity rights, doesn’t contain unlawful material, and complies with our Community Guidelines and applicable law
  • you have consent from any identifiable person in your content (and, for minors, consent from a parent/guardian).

 

5) How you may use our content

  • You may view and share links to public pages.
  • You may not copy, scrape, harvest, crawl, text-and-data mine, or build datasets from our site or databases without our written permission, except where a statutory exception clearly applies (e.g., certain non-commercial TDM in the UK) and you respect our technical measures/robots.txt. We assert our database right and copyright in site compilations and selection/arrangement.

AI training & automated use

Using The Sharing Life content (including UGC) to train or fine-tune AI models is prohibited without a written licence. This reflects current publisher practice in light of scraping disputes and evolving law.

 

6) Reporting infringement (UK notice-and-takedown)

If you believe content on The Sharing Life infringes your copyright or related rights, email ip@thesharing.life with a “Notice of Alleged Infringement” containing:

  1. Your full name and contact details.
  2. A description of the work you own and evidence of ownership.
  3. The exact URL(s) of the allegedly infringing material.
  4. Why you believe it infringes (e.g., copied photo, substantial part of text).
  5. A statement that you have a good-faith belief the use is not authorised by you, your agent or the law.
  6. A statement that the information is true and accurate, and that you’re the rights holder or authorised to act for them.
  7. Your electronic or physical signature.

What we do next. Under the UK’s “hosting” safe harbour regime (E-Commerce Regulations 2002), once we obtain actual knowledge of infringement we will act expeditiously to remove or disable access and notify the uploader where appropriate. Legislation.gov.uk We may preserve information for evidence and, where required, provide details to courts or authorities. The Online Safety Act 2023 also expects swift removal of illegal content and effective user reporting mechanisms, which we operate. Legislation.gov.uk

 

7) US DMCA channel (for US-hosted mirrors or US distribution)

Where relevant (for example, if content is hosted or distributed in the US), we also accept DMCA notices that comply with 17 U.S.C. §512(c)(3). Your DMCA notice must include:

  • your signature; identification of the copyrighted work; identification of the material and its location; your contact details; the standard good-faith and accuracy/authority statements. (See US Copyright Office §512 overview and statutory text.) U.S. Copyright Office

Counter-notice (DMCA only). If we remove content under DMCA and you believe it’s a mistake or misidentification, you may send a counter-notice meeting §512(g) requirements; unless the complainant files an action, we may restore the content after the statutory period. Legal Information Institute

Misuse. Knowingly submitting false notices/counter-notices may carry legal consequences. 8) Repeat-infringer policy

We may suspend or terminate accounts that repeatedly infringe or are the subject of multiple valid notices. We will also take action against accounts that abuse the reporting process.

 

9) What happens to content we remove

  • We may remove, hide, blur, label, restrict sharing, or disable access.
  • We may retain a copy for legal/risk/audit purposes.
  • If we remove your UGC after a notice, you can contact appeals@thesharing.life if you believe the removal was in error or you have licensing/fair-dealing grounds.

 

10) Edge cases you’ve asked us to plan for

  • Screenshots/reposts of media articles: likely copyrighted; prefer linking/quoting short extracts with attribution under fair dealing (e.g., for reporting/critique) rather than uploading entire works.
  • User scans of books/magazines: typically not permitted; short, attributed excerpts only.
  • Re-uploads of news photos/TV stills: not permitted without rights; use links or embed where the source provides lawful embeds.
  • Academic/non-commercial research scraping or TDM: still requires legal review and must not override our technical measures.
  • Illegal content (e.g., CSAM, terrorist material): report via in-product tools; we remove swiftly and notify relevant authorities in line with Online Safety Act expectations. GOV.UK

 

11) Brand safety & moderation signals

We combine proactive measures (filters, hashing, rate limits) and reactive workflows (user reports, fast takedown, escalation). Ofcom’s codes emphasise accessible reporting and timely action; we follow those principles.

 

12) Platform scraping, data export & API

  • No scraping, harvesting, bulk exporting, or automated access without written permission.
  • API (if offered) will have separate licence terms; you must not use it to re-create or substitute our service or build competing datasets.
  • We may use legal tools (including injunctions) to prevent large-scale infringement or circumvention; UK courts have granted injunctions to curb copyright misuse and unlawful distribution.

 

13) Contact points