Legal
Content Rights and Licensing
Version 2026-09-19, in force from 2026-09-19
Who owns what at each stage of a job, and what either side may do with it afterwards.
This is a draft pending attorney review. It describes how MontageU actually works and what it actually does with your files, and every statement here matches the product as built. It has not been reviewed by a lawyer, and it is not a binding agreement until it has been.
What the client promises about what they upload
By uploading anything, you confirm you either own it or have permission to use it and to have somebody else edit it. That covers footage shot by someone else, images you found, and anything featuring a person who has not agreed to appear.
If that turns out not to be true, it is your responsibility rather than the editor's or MontageU's, and the job can be stopped.
Music is the client's responsibility
The licence for any music on a finished edit is yours to hold, not the editor's. An editor cutting to a track you chose is following your instruction, and a claim on the finished video will land on whoever publishes it.
If you do not have a licence, ask the editor for something you can clear. Most of them can suggest one.
What you get when you pay
On approval, the rights to the finished edit pass to you. You can post it, change it, hand it to a client of your own, or use it commercially, with no further payment and no attribution required.
Before approval you can see the edit but you do not yet own it. That is what the watermarked preview is: enough to judge the work and ask for changes, not enough to publish. The full quality file unlocks the moment you approve.
What the editor keeps
Nothing, in terms of the finished work. Once you have paid, it is yours.
The one exception is the portfolio, and it is off unless you switch it on. When you book a job there is a checkbox letting the editor show the work publicly. It is unticked by default, leaving it unticked costs you nothing, and an editor cannot publish the work without it.
If the job is cancelled, the editor may not show the work at all, whatever was ticked.
What happens to your source material
Your original footage and photos are yours throughout. The editor can read them while the job is running and loses access the moment it completes or is cancelled.
Sixty days after a job closes, your source material is deleted from our storage automatically. The finished edit is not deleted.