Copyright & Ownership Policy
Creators keep the original work they create by default; ownership transfers must be explicit, credits follow real contributions, and plagiarism or false ownership claims are prohibited.
Copyright & Ownership Policy
This policy protects original creative work, fair attribution, legitimate licensing, and clear ownership.
1. Ownership by default
A creator keeps ownership of original work that creator personally creates unless a written agreement clearly says otherwise.
RBEW does not claim ownership merely because a project was discussed with RBEW, submitted for consideration, stored in an RRN creator portal, promoted by RRN, or assisted by ordinary RBEW administrative or distribution work.
Any transfer of ownership, exclusive license, shared ownership, work-for-hire arrangement, or comparable rights change must be explicit and agreed to in writing where legally required.
2. Meaningful contribution
Meaningful contribution may include original writing, composition, performance, arrangement, visual design, editing, production, direction, programming, recording, or other original creative labor.
An idea, suggestion, reaction, reference, general discussion, prompt, criticism, or ordinary feedback does not by itself create authorship or ownership.
A person cannot obtain ownership by later claiming that someone else's finished work grew from a broad idea they once mentioned.
3. Credits
Credits should accurately describe the person's actual contribution.
A contributor may not intentionally inflate, fabricate, erase, or misrepresent another person's material creative contribution.
Credit and ownership are related but not identical. A person may deserve credit without owning the underlying project, and an owner may license work without becoming the author of another person's contribution.
4. Licenses to RBEW
When a creator contributes work to an agreed RBEW project, the creator grants only the license reasonably necessary for the agreed project, its operation, distribution, and promotion unless a written agreement grants more.
The default RBEW policy is non-exclusive licensing rather than silent ownership transfer.
A creator's withdrawal may end a revocable license, but immediate removal may be delayed when instant removal would breach an existing agreement, destroy another contributor's legitimate rights, disrupt an already-distributed release, or create material financial or operational harm.
Any delay must be connected to the actual harm being prevented; it is not a blank check to hold a creator's work forever.
5. Removal cannot be used as coercion
A creator may not weaponize a removal right to extort, threaten, coerce, or obtain unrelated concessions from collaborators.
RBEW likewise may not use temporary operational dependence as an excuse to seize ownership.
6. Collaborative work
Collaborators should define ownership, licenses, splits, and decision rights before substantial monetization whenever reasonably possible.
When a legitimate dispute exists, RBEW may temporarily freeze a disputed release, payout, edit, or transfer while evidence is reviewed. A freeze should be limited to the disputed material or money when practical.
7. Plagiarism and false claims — hard line
You may not:
- knowingly present another person's original work as your own;
- knowingly file a false ownership or copyright claim;
- remove another person's legitimate credit to create a false authorship impression;
- submit stolen content as an RBEW/RRN release;
- fabricate ownership evidence;
- use a rights complaint as retaliation when you know you do not own the claimed rights.
Serious or repeated violations may result in removal from projects, loss of creator privileges, account action, contract remedies, and public disassociation where appropriate.
8. Rights complaints
A rights complaint should identify the disputed work, explain the claimed right, and provide enough information for RBEW to evaluate the claim.
RBEW may preserve copies, transaction records, credits, communications, and other relevant evidence while a dispute is reviewed.
Submitting a complaint does not automatically prove ownership.
9. No retroactive ownership
RBEW will not retroactively convert a non-exclusive collaboration into RBEW ownership merely by changing this policy.
Any new ownership transfer requires the agreement legally necessary for that transfer.
10. AI material
AI-assisted and AI-generated material is additionally governed by the Responsible AI / AI Exception Policy.