The plain-English version
ArchiveBay is a marketplace. We don’t own your content; we don’t own the licenses you sell. We connect creators who own their work with AI companies that want to license it. We charge 1% of each successful sale.
You promise: the work you list is yours, you have the right to license it, you’re telling the truth on your application, and you’ll honour the terms you agree to with each buyer.
We promise: we verify ownership before listings go live, we hold licenses in immutable records (database + on-chain), we’ll never pay journalists from sources or from ourselves, and the platform fee is 1% — not 10%, not 30%.
1. Eligibility
ArchiveBay is for individuals or entities that own the content they list. If you’re a journalist, the work must be yours personally — not bylines on outlets that own the work. If you’re a publisher, the entity must hold the rights to the archive being licensed.
2. Verification
Every archive is verified at the source via the platform’s real authentication mechanism (API key, OAuth, post-in-RSS, or DNS). False verification is grounds for immediate removal and forfeiture of any listings.
3. Platform fee
ArchiveBay retains 1% of each license sale; the creator receives 99%. The split is enforced both in the database and (when deployed) on the Solana smart contract. We may not unilaterally change this for an existing license.
4. Prohibited uses
You may not use the platform to launder content you don’t own, to facilitate paid coverage of any entity, to evade platform fees by transacting off-platform, or to misrepresent yourself or your work.
5. Termination
We may suspend or terminate an account that violates these terms. Active licenses survive termination of the seller’s account for the remainder of their term.
6. Disclaimers and limitations
The service is provided “as is” without warranty of any kind. We are a marketplace and not a party to any individual license agreement. Disputes between buyers and creators must ultimately be resolved between the parties.
7. Contact
Reach the team at legal@archivebay.io — pending (we’ll publish the address once a custom domain is live). For takedown notices, see the DMCA / takedown page.
These are draft terms for the founding cohort. They will be replaced with counsel-reviewed terms before broader launch. Use of the platform indicates acceptance of these draft terms.