Content Policy

1. Scope and how this policy works

This policy forms part of the Terms of Service and the Creator Agreement. Breaching it is a breach of those agreements.

It applies to everything visible or transmissible through the Service: poems and prose, designs and artwork, AI-generated imagery, product names and descriptions, storefront copy, biographies, avatars, handles, subdomains, collection names, email newsletters sent through our tools, and messages to us or to other users.

We do not pre-screen. We have no obligation to monitor and assume none by acting. We may remove, restrict, delist, age-gate or refuse anything, and suspend or close any account, at our sole discretion and without prior notice, where we reasonably believe this policy or the law has been broken — or where continued publication would expose us, a partner, or a third party to risk.

Content being live on the Service is not our approval of it. Publishing is your decision and your responsibility.

2. Intellectual property — the rule that catches most people

Publish only what you wrote or made yourself, or what you hold a written licence to reproduce commercially and sell worldwide, on physical products.

The following are prohibited without a written licence you can produce on request:

• Song lyrics — even a single line, even with attribution, even with a credit to the artist. Lyric rights are actively enforced and almost never free.
• Quotations from books, poems, essays, speeches, films, television, plays or interviews by anyone other than you.
• Translations of anyone's work, including your translation of someone else's poem, and someone else's translation of an old text.
• Photographs, illustrations, paintings, patterns, textures, icons and fonts you did not create — including material found through a search engine, a social platform, a stock site without the right licence, or an AI tool that reproduced it.
• Typographic arrangements and edited editions of public-domain works, which frequently carry their own separate copyright.
• Fan art, fan fiction and derivative work based on someone else's characters, worlds or designs.

Trademarks, brands and institutions. Do not use anyone's trademark, logo, wordmark, slogan, trade dress, team, university, band, festival or company name, or anything confusingly similar, on a product or storefront without written permission. Naming a brand descriptively in a poem is not the same as printing it on merchandise; assume merchandise use needs permission.

Real people. Do not use anyone's name, photograph, likeness, signature, voice or persona in a way that suggests endorsement, or that commercialises their identity, without written consent. This applies to celebrities, public figures, and private individuals — including people you know.

Public domain. A work being old does not make it free. Copyright terms differ by country, editions and translations restart the clock, and some jurisdictions recognise perpetual moral rights. If you are not sure, do not publish it.

AI-generated imagery. You are responsible for AI output you publish exactly as if you had drawn it. Do not publish an AI image that reproduces a recognisable artwork, character, trademark, logo or real person, or that was produced by prompting for a living artist's style in a way that reproduces their protected expression.

3. Prohibited content

The following must never appear anywhere on the Service:

• Child sexual abuse material, sexualisation of minors, or any depiction or description that presents a minor in a sexual manner. We report this to the relevant authorities and terminate the account permanently, with no appeal.
• Content that incites, threatens, glorifies or provides instructions for violence, terrorism, or serious harm to people or property.
• Hate content: attacking, dehumanising, demeaning, excluding or inciting hatred against people on the basis of race, ethnicity, national origin, religion, caste, sex, gender identity, sexual orientation, disability, serious illness, age, immigration status or another protected characteristic. Slurs and hateful symbols are prohibited even when framed as reclamation, irony or art, unless we agree otherwise in writing in advance.
• Harassment, bullying, stalking, targeted abuse of an identifiable person, or sharing someone's private information (address, phone number, identity documents, private communications) without consent.
• Sexually explicit or pornographic imagery. Frank, adult literary treatment of sex and the body is allowed; explicit pornographic depiction is not.
• Content that promotes self-harm, suicide, eating disorders, or dangerous behaviour, or that provides methods or encouragement.
• Content that promotes, sells or facilitates weapons, explosives, illegal drugs, drug paraphernalia, poisons, counterfeit currency, stolen goods, hacking tools, malware, forged documents, or any other restricted or unlawful item.
• Content that endangers public health or safety through knowingly false claims, or that discourages medical care.
• Content designed to deceive: impersonation, false claims of endorsement or affiliation, false provenance, forged reviews, fake scarcity, undisclosed paid promotion, or misleading claims about materials, sourcing, sustainability or charitable donation.
• Defamatory statements of fact about identifiable people or organisations.
• Content that breaches a court order, a confidentiality obligation, an embargo, or export-control or sanctions law.
• Content depicting a real recent tragedy, atrocity, disaster or crime victim in a way that exploits it commercially.
• Spam, unsolicited commercial messaging, link farming, keyword stuffing, or storefronts created to manipulate search or the marketplace.

4. Sensitive but permitted

Poetry deals with grief, rage, sex, addiction, war, illness, faith and politics. That is not what this policy is against. Serious literary treatment of difficult subject matter is welcome, including work that many readers will find uncomfortable.

The line is intent and effect: exploring a subject is permitted; celebrating cruelty, instructing harm, targeting a person or group, or dressing a slur as a poem is not.

We may age-gate, add an interstitial to, or restrict from the public marketplace any content we consider strong, while leaving it available on the creator's own storefront. That decision is ours alone.

5. Storefronts, handles and marketing

Handles, subdomains, display names, signatures and custom domains must not impersonate, infringe a mark, or mislead about who is behind the shop.

Storefront claims must be substantiable: do not claim awards, publications, endorsements, materials, certifications, charitable donations or origin you cannot prove.

Email you send through our tools must relate to your work, must go only to people who opted in on your storefront, must identify you, and must offer a working unsubscribe. Never buy, import or scrape lists into the platform.

6. Reporting content

Copyright and trademark: use the Copyright & IP Policy. It has a formal notice route and a counter-notice route.

Anything else: email info [at] myverseshop [dot] com with the exact URL, what is wrong with it, and — if it concerns you personally — how it concerns you. Include evidence where you have it.

We review well-founded reports and act where we agree, or where we consider it prudent to act regardless. We do not promise a response time, a particular outcome, or an explanation. We may share the substance of a report (though not necessarily your identity) with the person who published the content, unless the law or safety requires otherwise.

Knowingly false or abusive reports are themselves a breach of this policy.

7. Enforcement

Depending on severity, history and risk, we may: remove or unpublish content; delist a product from the public marketplace; restrict or age-gate it; suspend publishing; freeze payouts; suspend or terminate an account and all its storefronts; refuse re-registration; retain evidence; and report to law enforcement.

Illegal content, sexual content involving minors, and threats of violence result in immediate permanent termination.

Repeat infringement of intellectual property results in account termination as described in the Copyright & IP Policy.

Enforcement action does not entitle you to compensation, to a refund of Ink or plan fees, or to the release of withheld earnings that are subject to a claim.

You may reply to info [at] myverseshop [dot] com if you believe we got it wrong. Provide the URL, the action taken, and your explanation with evidence. We consider substantiated replies and may reinstate, but we are not obliged to.

8. Changes

We may update this policy at any time. The version and effective date are shown at the top of this page. Continued use of the Service after a change means you accept it.