A UGC contract needs to say, in plain words, what you deliver, who owns the files, exactly how and for how long the brand may use them (paid ads included), how many revision rounds the fee covers, whether raw footage changes hands, how your face and voice may be used, and whether anyone may alter the content with AI. The checklist below gives starting wording for each clause, to adapt with a lawyer.
Why UGC needs different terms from a sponsored post
A sponsored-post contract governs your account: posting dates, captions, how long the post stays up, which competitors you avoid. A UGC contract governs files that leave your hands and keep working for the brand long after you have been paid. Most of the risk sits in what the brand may do with those files later, so most of the clauses below deal with scope, time and alteration.
This page covers terms specific to UGC. If a brand wants a licence to build an AI version of your face or voice, that is a different arrangement with its own checklist in the AI digital twin licensing guide.
Who owns the video if the contract says nothing
Start here, because the default changes by country and the rest of the contract is built on top of it.
| Country | Starting position for a video a brand pays for | What changes it | Legal source for the default |
|---|---|---|---|
| Australia | The person who commissioned and paid for the film owns its copyright | An agreement to the contrary, best put in writing before filming starts | Copyright Act 1968, section 98(3) |
| United Kingdom | The creator is first owner, though a court may find the brand has an implied licence for the commissioned purpose | A written agreement transferring copyright to the brand | GOV.UK: ownership of copyright works |
| United States | The creator owns it unless it qualifies as a work made for hire | A written agreement signed by both parties that expressly treats the commissioned audiovisual work as made for hire | US Copyright Office Circular 30 |
The practical rule is the same in all three: write ownership down. If you want to keep copyright and grant the brand a licence, say so expressly; in Australia, that statement is the “agreement to the contrary” that displaces the default. If the brand insists on owning everything, price it as a buyout and still keep the right to show the work in your portfolio.
Clause checklist with starting wording
Copy each clause into your own template and replace the bracketed items. The wording is a starting point to discuss with a lawyer, not a finished contract.
| Clause | Starting wording | What to check |
|---|---|---|
| Deliverables | “Creator will deliver [number] edited videos in [ratios], each with [number] alternative openings, by [date], in the formats listed in Schedule A.” | Every version the brief mentions appears in the schedule, so nothing is assumed |
| Ownership | “Creator owns the copyright in all deliverables, raw footage and outtakes. Brand receives only the licence set out in clause [x].” | No work-for-hire or assignment wording elsewhere contradicts it |
| Licence scope | “A non-exclusive licence to publish the deliverables on Brand's owned social accounts, website and email marketing for the Term.” | Named channels, not “all media now known or later devised” |
| Term and territory | “The Term starts on the date of first publication and ends [period] later. The licence applies in [countries].” | A start trigger you can verify and an end date nobody can argue about |
| Paid ads | “Use in paid advertising from Brand's own ad accounts is permitted on [platforms] for [period] only.” | Paid use is its own line with its own fee |
| Ads under your handle | “Any ad that runs from Creator's account or displays Creator's handle requires Creator's separate written approval and fee.” | The platform permission you grant ends when this term ends |
| Brand edits | “Brand may trim, crop, resize, reorder and add captions, logos and calls to action. Brand may not change Creator's words or their meaning.” | Edits cannot make you appear to say something you did not |
| Raw footage | “Raw footage is not included. If purchased, it carries the same licence, Term and restrictions as the edited deliverables.” | Raw files cannot become a route around a narrow licence |
| Revisions | “The fee includes [number] revision rounds as defined in Schedule B. Further rounds and reshoots are charged at the rates in the quote.” | The definitions in the next section are attached as that schedule |
| Product claims | “Brand is responsible for substantiating any product claim it supplies or approves. Creator will describe only their own genuine experience.” | You are never scripted to claim results you did not get |
| Disclosure | “Any deliverable Creator posts on Creator's own channels will carry a clear ad label and the platform's paid partnership tool.” | The brand cannot ask you to drop, shrink or bury the label |
| Portfolio | “After first publication, Creator may display the deliverables in Creator's portfolio, without performance data.” | The confidentiality clause carves this use out |
| Payment | “[Deposit] on signing and the balance within [number] days of delivery. Late amounts accrue [rate]. The licence starts only once payment is received.” | Usage rights are tied to payment, not merely to delivery |
| Cancellation | “If Brand cancels after work starts, it pays for work completed and time reserved, and receives no licence in unfinished material.” | A kill fee is written down, not left to negotiate later |
| End of term | “When the Term ends, Brand stops new publication and all paid promotion. Organic posts already published may remain.” | Whether old organic posts may stay up, and confirmation that paid ads stop |
Two of these clauses mirror US advertising law. The FTC's Endorsement Guides say an endorsement may not be reworded or taken out of context to distort the endorser's opinion or experience, which is what the brand-edits clause protects, and that advertisers are liable for misleading or unsubstantiated claims made through endorsements, which is the logic behind the product-claims clause. Endorsers can be liable too, so do not sign a script that claims results you have not seen.
Revision rounds, defined
Most revision disputes start with the word itself. Attach definitions like these as a schedule, so “one more small change” has an agreed meaning before anyone asks for it.
| Request from the brand | Counts as | Covered by the fee? |
|---|---|---|
| Trim a pause, correct a caption typo, or swap to another royalty-free track | Revision | Yes, within the included rounds |
| Use a different take that already exists in the raw footage | Revision | Yes, counted as one of the included rounds |
| Change a spoken line so that it has to be filmed again | Reshoot | No, charged per reshoot at the quoted rate |
| Film with a different product, shade or variant | New deliverable | No, quoted separately before filming |
| Replace an approved hook or concept with a new idea | New concept | No, handled as a new brief |
| Feedback that arrives after the agreed window | Deemed approval | The delivery already counts as accepted |
- “A revision round is one consolidated set of written feedback from Brand, sent by one named contact.”
- “Feedback is due within [number] business days of delivery; if none arrives in that time, the delivery is approved.”
- “Feedback that contradicts an approved script or brief is a change of scope, not a revision.”
- “Each extra round and each reshoot is quoted and agreed in writing before work on it begins.”
Likeness and AI-alteration clause options
Your face, voice and body are more than footage. The FTC's guides count depictions of a person's likeness as part of an endorsement, and say that using an endorsement with the image or likeness of someone other than the actual endorser is deceptive if it misrepresents a material attribute of the endorser. In Australia, the Arts Law Centre's moral rights information sheet explains that the principal director, producer and screenwriter of a film hold a right of integrity against derogatory treatment, that creators can consent in writing to specific changes, and that a blanket “waiver” may be read as consent to every future infringement.
Likeness options
- Narrow: your likeness appears only in the deliverables as delivered, and in the edits the contract permits.
- Middle: the brand may also take stills and short excerpts from the deliverables for ads and product pages during the Term.
- Broad, priced as a premium: the brand may use your name and likeness in new formats such as thumbnails, banners or retail displays, for a fixed period you approve.
AI-alteration options
- Option A, no AI changes: no generative or AI tool may alter your face, body or voice, though ordinary colour, sound and cropping edits are fine.
- Option B, approved technical edits: AI tools may clean up backgrounds, upscale footage or remove noise, provided your appearance and words stay unchanged.
- Option C, translation with approval: AI dubbing or lip-sync into named languages, each version sent to you for written approval before use, for a separate fee.
- Excluded under every option: training any model on your face or voice, building a digital replica, or generating statements you never made.
If a brand wants anything beyond Option C, you are negotiating a likeness licence rather than a UGC job, and the digital twin licence checklist is the better starting point. If you post an AI-altered version on your own account, platform AI labels apply on top of the ad label; the TikTok AI-generated content label guide covers one example.
Terms to push back on
Some clauses quietly turn a UGC fee into a sale of everything you made. Ask for changes when you see these.
- A perpetual, worldwide, all-media licence in exchange for a one-off production fee.
- Work-for-hire or full-assignment wording that you did not price as a buyout.
- Brand ownership of raw footage and outtakes, not just the edited deliverables.
- Unlimited revisions, or approval left to the brand's sole satisfaction.
- A right to edit the content in any manner, or a blanket waiver of moral rights.
- A right for the brand to change usage, fee or deliverables after signing without your agreement.
- An indemnity that makes you liable for claims the brand wrote or approved.
- Exclusivity with no end date, or no clear list of the competitors it covers.
In Australia, the ACCC's contracts guidance says that since 9 November 2023, proposing or relying on unfair terms in standard form contracts can attract penalties, and that small businesses with fewer than 100 employees or under $10 million in annual turnover are covered for new or varied contracts. Terms letting one side, but not the other, change the contract or end it are among the examples the law gives of terms that may be unfair. Only a court can decide that a term is unfair, so treat the rules as leverage in negotiation rather than as protection you can count on.
Limitations of this template
This checklist is general information for creators in Australia, the UK and the US, not legal advice, and it is not a complete contract: it leaves out governing law, dispute resolution, liability limits and tax terms that a lawyer would add. Copyright, moral rights and likeness law differ between countries, and in the US between states, so have a lawyer review the contract before you sign, especially the ownership, licence and AI clauses. Arts Law Centre of Australia and similar bodies elsewhere publish information for creators and can point you towards advice.
Pricing each clause is a separate job; the UGC rate card worksheet turns these lines into a quote. For work made before you had a portfolio clause, the UGC portfolio guide includes a permission request you can send.