Terms of Engagement & Pre-Contract Notice

1. No contract until we both sign one

Submitting the consultation intake, exchanging emails, or having a discovery call does not create an agreement, a partnership, or an obligation to proceed. A working relationship begins only when a written agreement is signed by both of us. Until then, either side is free to walk away.

2. Ownership of samples, tests & evaluation content

Any material I create before a signed agreement — sample or test renders, demo clips, mock-ups, proofs, look-development tests, concept treatments, or similar evaluation content — is created by me at my discretion and remains my property (or the property of the studio/rights-holder a demo was made for, as applicable).

Unless and until a signed agreement says otherwise:

• · Evaluation content is provided for review only and cannot be published, broadcast, distributed, monetised, or incorporated into any production.
• · No copyright, licence, or other right in it transfers to you.
• · It may not be altered, re-coloured, re-used in a pitch, or handed to a third party.
• · Rights transfer only under a signed agreement and after payment as set out there.

If you would like to use evaluation content in any way, we can licence or assign it under a separate written agreement.

3. Deliverables & IP ownership (under a signed agreement)

For paid engagements, the default starting point — negotiable in the contract — is:

• · Deliverables: final, paid deliverables can be assigned to you using a work-made-for-hire designation where it legally applies, backed by an express present-tense assignment for everything else.
• · My background IP: I retain ownership of my pre-existing tools, frameworks, methodologies, models, prompts, pipelines and know-how. You receive a licence to use them only as embedded in the deliverables.
• · Portfolio: unless we agree otherwise, I may show non-confidential work in my portfolio.

Why the wording matters: under U.S. copyright law, a commissioned work by an independent contractor is only "work made for hire" if there is a signed written agreement and the work falls into one of nine narrow categories (17 U.S.C. §101; see Community for Creative Non-Violence v. Reid). Almost everything else needs an explicit written assignment (17 U.S.C. §204). Good contracts use both.

4. AI-specific ownership caveat

Generative tools are useful, but "ownership" of their raw output is limited. In the U.S., copyright requires human authorship — purely AI-generated material is not copyrightable, and only human-authored contributions are protected (Thaler v. Perlmutter, D.C. Cir. 2025; U.S. Copyright Office, Copyright and Artificial Intelligence, Part 2, Jan. 2025). So where a deliverable includes AI-generated material, the assignable rights may be narrower than for a fully human-authored work. I document the human creative process (selection, arrangement, editing, direction) and the provenance of AI use so this is clear from the start.

5. Indemnity

I work on a mutual, fault-based basis: each party indemnifies the other for claims caused by its own negligence, misconduct or breach. Where I indemnify you for third-party intellectual-property claims in my work, that indemnity is capped (typically tied to insurance limits and fees paid) rather than open-ended. I do not accept uncapped, unilateral, broad-form indemnities — including indemnifying you for materials or tools you supply or direct. Terms are set in the signed agreement.

6. Insurance (E&O / professional liability)

I can carry and evidence professional liability (errors & omissions / media liability) coverage appropriate to an engagement. If your contract requires a specific limit, carrier rating, additional-insured wording or certificate, tell me before we start so it can be arranged. Note that insurers increasingly scrutinise AI-related work and may require human review, provenance records and approved-use policies — which is exactly why I keep them.

7. Confidentiality

I am happy to sign a mutual NDA before you share sensitive material, and to work under yours. Until an NDA is signed, please don't send anything you consider confidential — information sent beforehand is not automatically treated as confidential.

8. Limitation of liability & governing law

Liability limits, the treatment of indirect or consequential damages, and the governing law and dispute-resolution terms are all set in the signed agreement for each engagement. The law and required carve-outs vary by jurisdiction, so these are tailored rather than boilerplate.

9. No legal advice; no warranties in this page

Content on this site — including guides and articles — is general information, not legal advice, and is provided "as is" without warranty. Licence terms, guild agreements, studio policies and AI law change; always verify the current documents and take professional advice for your specific situation.