Article · Creators
Usage rights: what are you really licensing?
When you deliver a video you remain its author: you grant the property the right to use it, for named uses and a named duration. Anything not written down is not licensed, but anything written too broadly is licensed for good. Paid advertising is the use that changes the value of your work the most.
The uses, cheapest to most expensive
These are not equivalent checkboxes. Each exposes your video to a different audience, for a different length of time.
Organic posting.
The property posts on its own accounts. Limited reach, short shelf life. This is the base use and the cheapest to license.
Website and newsletter.
Longer exposure but a narrow, already-acquired audience. Low risk for you.
Booking listings.
Your video goes out to third-party platforms, where the property controls nothing. Allow it knowingly.
Paid advertising.
The video is pushed with a budget, to a bought audience, often for months. This is the most valuable use, and the one to price separately.
Duration matters as much as use
A licence with no duration is a licence with no end. Six months, twelve, twenty-four: duration is negotiable like everything else, and it is often the best lever when a budget is tight. Shortening the licence rather than the rate protects your value and leaves the door open to a paid renewal. At expiry the property must stop using the video or buy another period.
Three clauses not to sign
“All media, all territories, in perpetuity”.
It looks harmless and dispossesses you permanently. You lose any say over how your work is used, including in advertising, including ten years from now.
Unbounded exclusivity.
Agreeing not to work for competing properties can make sense, but only with a radius, a duration and a fee attached. Without all three you are giving up a market for free.
Waiving moral rights.
Under French law an author’s moral right cannot be transferred: a clause claiming otherwise is not valid. Its presence mainly tells you how serious the party sending it is.
If you appear on camera
Two different rights then overlap, and many contracts only cover one. Copyright covers the video; your image rights cover your face. Allowing the film to be published does not automatically allow your image to be used in advertising. If you are filmed, insist both are handled separately, with the same duration and the same named uses.
Answers
Frequently asked questions
Can you repost a video you delivered to a property?
You remain the author, so in principle yes, unless the contract sets an exclusivity. Get it spelled out: that is what lets you build your portfolio.
What happens when the licence expires?
The property must stop using the video, or negotiate a new period. In practice, plan to chase it: few properties track their own expiry dates.
Is an agreement made in DMs worth anything?
Something written beats nothing, and a recap email accepted by both sides is already an agreement. The problem is not the format, it is what it leaves out: with no named uses or duration, there is nothing to enforce.
Do you need a contract for a simple stay-for-content collab?
Yes, and that is where it matters most. When no money changes hands people write even less, and those are exactly the collabs where uses drift.
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Rights bounded by default
On Séjournée every use is listed in the contract with its duration, and paid advertising is a separate line. The creator sets what they license and at what price; the property builds within those limits. Nobody discovers at delivery what had been granted.
See how it works