Do the terms of use at the crowdfunding service Patreon undermine users’ control of their content? An expert says no—but emphasizes this is the right question to ask
When Kristine Kathryn Rusch wrote several days ago about troubling language in the terms of use for the Patreon crowdfunding membership platform, we felt it was a good example of the awareness and caution that everyone in the creative industries should exercise when it comes to understanding terms of use and any grant of rights with a publishing platform or partner.
For those unaware of the troubling language, here are the terms that Rusch identified (go here for the full terms): “By posting creations on Patreon you grant us a royalty-free, perpetual, irrevocable, non-exclusive, sublicensable, worldwide license to use, reproduce, distribute, perform, publicly display or prepare derivative works of your creation. The purpose of this license is strictly limited to allow us to provide and promote memberships to your patrons. We will never try to steal your creations or use them in an exploitative way.”
Rusch realized the rights grab was there from day one of her own Patreon use, but says she decided it was okay for her nonfiction work. (However, for fiction, she describes herself as a “control freak.”)
We asked Victoria Strauss of Writer Beware about Patreon’s language; she sees many contracts as part of her work for the Writer Beware column, which is sponsored by the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America. She, too, found the language in the Patreon terms to be concerning, and she frequently receives questions about it. However, her measured response has a lot to do with the importance of reading and understanding terms and conditions for platforms where legal ownership is held by someone else. “These kinds of clauses are part of just about any T&C for websites that host user content,” she told us. “The official intent isn’t to enable the website to rip off the content, but to be able to display and promote the website online and across various platforms. The actual language varies, but clauses like this are everywhere. You can find them even in the T&C for online writing contests.”
The better versions of this kind of language, Strauss says, “make it explicit that the license or grant of rights is limited to the operation and promotion of the website.” Patreon’s text, she says, is in this camp of the better kind of language. Worse versions “don’t qualify the grant of rights in any way—and those, I think, should be avoided. Probably the websites with worse clauses aren’t any more interested in ripping off your content than the sites with better clauses, but without the disclaimer, there’s just too much ambiguity.”
Strauss says authors looking at such services need to have a strong sense of what’s important to them. What do they need from a funding program like Patreon, what other options might they have to meet those goals, and how comfortable might they be with this set of terms? When an author is weighing terms, she says, “I’d suggest looking for three things: an explicit acknowledgment of your copyright ownership (i.e., that your content is yours); limitation of the license or grant of rights to operation of the website or platform; and the unequivocal ability to terminate your account and remove your content at will.”
Bottom line: As subscribers to The Hot Sheet know, we’ve frequently referenced Patreon in our Links of Interest, and many authors—including well-known figures like Rusch and Joanna Penn—use the site to fund their work. There’s clearly a market for the service, and there is continued interest in how it can work well (and fairly) for authors. Rusch is right to take a hard look at the terms, and Strauss is right to suggest putting any such terms to her three-point test.
Jane Friedman has spent her entire career working in the publishing industry, with a focus on business reporting and author education. Established in 2015, her newsletter The Bottom Line provides nuanced market intelligence to thousands of authors and industry professionals; in 2023, she was named Publishing Commentator of the Year by Digital Book World.
Jane’s expertise regularly features in major media outlets such as The New York Times, The Atlantic, NPR, The Today Show, Wired, The Guardian, Fox News, and BBC. Her book, The Business of Being a Writer, Second Edition (The University of Chicago Press), is used as a classroom text by many writing and publishing degree programs. She reaches thousands through speaking engagements and workshops at diverse venues worldwide, including NYU’s Advanced Publishing Institute, Frankfurt Book Fair, and numerous MFA programs.
