Copyright Policy

This is how we handle copyright on Squadrie: what we ask of the work people upload, how to tell us that something here belongs to you, and what we do when you do.

It applies to everything members put on the platform — portfolio items and profile images, project briefs, proposals, deliverables in a contract workspace, messages, and anything attached to a ticket — and to our own content: the Squadrie name and marks, the interface, and the software behind it.

Who owns what, and the licence you give us so that we can show your work at all, is clause 16 of the Terms of Service (Intellectual property). This page does not replace that clause and is not a second version of it.

You keep what you make. We do not take ownership of your work by hosting it.

We will not host work that belongs to somebody else and was posted without their permission.

If something here is yours and you did not agree to it being here, tell us and we will deal with it.

If we remove something you posted, you will hear from us, and you can answer.

Only post work you own or have permission to use. That sounds obvious; the ways it goes wrong are specific:

• A portfolio piece that was made by somebody else, or by a team, presented as your own — including work you directed but did not make, without saying so.
• Client work you are not free to publish. Many engagements carry a confidentiality clause, and publishing the work can breach it even though the copyright is arguable. If you are unsure, ask the client for permission before it goes up.
• Stock images, templates, fonts, music, plugins or model output presented as your own craft. Some of these are licensed for use but not for claiming authorship, and some carry no licence at all.
• A deliverable that includes assets you are not licensed to hand over. The client receives what you deliver; if there is a licensed asset inside it, the licence has to travel with it.
• Whole pages, copy or code lifted from elsewhere and passed off as your work.

Send it to the grievance contact published with the Terms, or raise it at /support — both reach the same place and both open a ticket you can follow. A formal complaint under the IT Rules 2021 is the correct route where the material is unlawful as well as infringing.

We do not require a particular form. A useful notice tells us:

• What you own, and how — the work, and what your connection to it is (owner, or authorised to act for the owner).
• Where it is on Squadrie — the address of the page, profile or item, or as much of a description as lets us find it.
• Why you believe it was posted without permission.
• How we can reach you.
• A statement that the notice is accurate and that you are the owner or authorised to act for them, and that you are acting in good faith.
• Your signature, electronically is fine.

We look at what you have sent and what is on the platform. If we need more from you, we will say what and why rather than sitting on it.

Where the notice is good, we remove or disable the material and tell the person who posted it, with enough detail that they can answer the allegation.

We are not a court and we do not decide who owns what between two people. What we can do is take material down while that is argued, and put it back if the answer is persuasive or if the person complaining does not pursue it.

Where a court or a government authority orders content taken down, we act within 36 hours — the period the IT Rules 2021 allow — and we tell the person it belonged to unless we are ordered not to.

A notice we know to be false, or sent to silence somebody, is itself a breach of the Terms.

You will be told, and you can answer through the same ticket. Tell us what you own, how you came by it, and if you have permission, on what terms.

If your answer holds up, the material goes back. If the person who complained does not pursue it, we may restore it rather than leave it down indefinitely.

If you repeatedly post other people's work, we will treat that as a pattern rather than a series of accidents, and under clause 18 of the Terms (Suspension and termination) it can end in the account being closed.

Removing a portfolio item does not remove a contract, a record or an invoice — those are business records, and clause 16 and the Terms' retention sections say what happens to them.

The Squadrie name, logo and interface, the guides we write, and the software itself belong to us or our licensors. You are welcome to talk about the platform, link to it, and describe your work on it. You may not copy the interface, pass off the platform as your own, or use our marks in a way that suggests we endorse you.

Guides and pages we publish may be shared for the purpose they are published for; reproducing them as your own content is not that purpose.

We keep a record of every report, what it alleged, what we did and when, because there is a statutory clock on some of it and because the person on the other side is entitled to the reasons.

What we hold, and for how long, is set out in the Privacy Policy rather than here.

If we change how we handle copyright, the change appears here and the Terms' change clause (21) governs how you are told. A change that reduces what you are entitled to will not be applied to a complaint you have already raised.