What you agree to

Plain language, because a permission nobody understood is not a permission. Ten points, and none of them are longer than they need to be.

The agreement

1. Who we are

   Ecoregions is building a public map of the world’s 817 ecoregions. We ask people who know a place to film it, so the place is shown by someone who has stood in it.

2. What you are giving us

   A non-exclusive permission to host, display and share the photographs and video you upload on the Ecoregions map and app, on our website, and through Ecoregions share links. Non-exclusive means you can license it to anyone else too. Uploads are reviewed before they appear. The permission is worldwide and lasts until you delete the upload or withdraw it (point 6).

   Films, television, streaming and advertising are covered in point 4.

3. What we will do with it

   Your footage is shown alongside the name of its ecoregion and the ground it was shot on. You are credited by the name or handle you choose, or not credited if you prefer, in the app and in any approved use. We may shorten a clip, or adjust colour and sound. We will not change what it shows.

4. Films and series: only if you opt in, and you get paid

   LEGAL TEXT PENDING -- final wording is being written by a lawyer.

   When you upload, a separate box asks whether this footage may be used in Ecoregions films and series, with credit. It is never ticked for you. If you leave it unticked, your footage stays in the app only.

   If you tick it and we use a clip, we email you straight away saying what it is used for, and we pay a fee for each clip used. On top of that, 20% of what Ecoregions receives from that film or series, after the direct costs of making it, is shared among everyone whose footage appears in it, in proportion to how much is used. We send each person their statement by email.

   You are credited by name or handle, as you choose. You can withdraw footage that has not been used yet; a released film does not have to be recut. Footage from under-18s and school accounts is never used in a film without separate written consent.

   We will not sell your footage to anyone else, or use it to promote any company or product other than Ecoregions.

5. You keep it

   You own what you shoot. You keep the copyright. This gives us permission to use it in the app, not ownership of it. You stay free to use your own footage however you like, including selling it somewhere else.

6. You can withdraw

   You can ask us to stop using anything you uploaded, at any time, for any reason, without explaining. We remove it from the map and from our systems within 30 days. We cannot recall copies other people have already downloaded, and we would rather say so than pretend otherwise.

7. People on camera

   If someone is identifiable in your footage, you need their agreement before you upload it. If you are filming on land held or used by a community, that community needs to agree to the filming and to its use, freely and in advance, in a language they actually speak.

8. What you are confirming

   That the footage is yours, that you had permission to be where you shot it, and that anyone identifiable in it has agreed. If that is not true of a clip, do not upload it.

9. Nothing here is about land

   This agreement covers footage only. It gives Ecoregions no interest of any kind in the land. Holding a plot and uploading footage are separate things, and signing this affects neither the plot nor the ground it names.