Terms of Service

1. This agreement

These Terms are a contract between you and SiteTools, Inc. d/b/a FilmIndustry.com (“FilmIndustry.com”, “we”, “us”), which runs FilmIndustry.com, its apps and its API (the “Service”). You accept them, and our Privacy Policy, by ticking the box when you create an account, or by using the Service. If you don't agree, don't use the Service.

Section 19 says disputes go to court in Los Angeles County, California, and limits class actions as the law allows. Please read it.

2. Who can use it

You must be at least 18, able to make a binding contract, and live in the United States. You confirm this when you sign up. One person, one account. Accounts are personal and can't be sold or transferred. If you use the Service for a company or production, you confirm you're allowed to bind it to these Terms, and “you” includes it.

Minors. People under 18 can't have accounts. A role for a minor (for example a child actor) must be applied for by the child's parent or legal guardian through their own account, and the person posting the role is responsible for the work permits, studio teachers, trust-account set-asides (such as California's Coogan law) and court approval of contracts that the law requires.

3. Your account and verification

Give us accurate information and keep your password and any two-factor codes safe. Before an account becomes active we confirm your email address and check your email address and mobile number with our verification provider, Verified.net, a company under common ownership with FilmIndustry.com. Accounts that fail these checks may be refused or limited; if you think we got it wrong, email support@filmindustry.com and a person will review it. You're responsible for activity on your account, and you'll tell us promptly if you think someone else is using it.

4. What FilmIndustry.com is, and isn't

FilmIndustry.com is a place to post film projects, ideas and brand campaigns, find collaborators, apply for roles and gigs, share scripts with people you choose, message each other, and record what you agree with your team.

We are not a party to any collaboration, job, gig or agreement between members. We are not anyone's employer, talent agent, manager, casting director, producer, broker or lawyer; we don't represent any member, and we don't take commissions. We don't vet members, projects, funding, pay or claims beyond what these Terms describe. You're responsible for checking who you work with.

5. Your content

You keep ownership of what you post: projects, synopses, scripts, profiles, rate cards, samples, messages, applications, updates and files (“Your Content”). You give us a non-exclusive, worldwide, royalty-free licence to host, store, copy, format, display and send Your Content as needed to run, secure and improve the Service, and to show it to the people your settings allow. That includes:

• showing public projects, public profiles and public job and gig listings to anyone, and letting search engines index them, including Google's job search for publicly listed paid roles (title, pay, dates, location, and the project's or brand's name);
• emailing the parts of Your Content that the features you use send, such as an application to a project's contact address (section 13) or an update to a project's followers.

We won't use Your Content in advertising for FilmIndustry.com without your permission. The licence ends when you delete the content or your account, except for copies in backups (kept up to about 12 months) and records described in the Privacy Policy.

You choose who sees each project (public, members only, or private) and each script. You're responsible for those choices and for having the rights to everything you upload, including permission from anyone who appears in your photos, reels or samples.

6. Ideas, scripts and confidentiality

Ideas themselves usually can't be owned, and similar ideas often arise independently. You understand that other members may already have, or later develop, projects like yours. FilmIndustry.com helps protect your work by letting you control visibility, stamping every script copy with the reader's name, email and the time, logging who opened it, and keeping a dated history of your project. We can't guarantee that others will respect your work. We recommend registering your script with the US Copyright Office (and, if you like, the WGA Registry) before sharing it.

Script confidentiality. When you request or open a script or document someone shared with you on FilmIndustry.com, you agree to keep it confidential: don't copy, share or use it except to consider working on that project with its owner, unless the owner agrees in writing. This doesn't apply to material that's already public or that you can show you had or created independently.

FilmIndustry.com's staff don't develop or produce members' projects, and we don't accept submissions for ourselves.

7. Rules

Don't use FilmIndustry.com to:

• charge anyone to apply, audition or be considered, require them to buy a product or training, or run any scam;
• harass, threaten, stalk or exploit anyone, including sexual harassment or offering roles in exchange for sexual favours or money;
• discriminate unlawfully, including in crew hiring on the basis of race, colour, religion, sex, gender identity, sexual orientation, national origin, age, disability or any other protected trait (casting descriptions may describe a character as written, but your decisions must still follow the law);
• post content you don't have the rights to, or someone else's script, idea, footage or samples as your own;
• pretend to be someone else, or suggest that a real person, company or brand is involved in or endorses your project when they aren't;
• send spam or bulk messages, or contact people for reasons unrelated to the work on the Service;
• manipulate votes, create fake or extra accounts, or trade or sell votes;
• scrape, copy or harvest data from the Service, or get around access controls, rate limits or watermarks;
• post anything illegal, sexually explicit, involving the sexualisation of minors, or promoting violence;
• offer investments or securities (section 10).

8. Jobs and roles

If you post a role, it must be a real opportunity, described honestly (pay, dates, location, and whether it's union or non-union), and lawful. You are responsible for following employment and labour law, including:

• Pay. Federal and state minimum-wage and overtime laws usually require paying people who work on a production, even short or low-budget ones. Unpaid or “deferred pay” roles are lawful only in limited situations, such as genuine volunteers for non-profit productions or co-owners of a project. Deferred pay doesn't replace minimum wage where it applies. If you're not sure, ask an employment lawyer before posting.
• Employee or contractor. Whether someone is an employee depends on the law (for example California's “ABC test”), not on what you call them.
• Pay transparency and job-ad rules that apply to you in your state.
• Unions. Union members may be barred by their union from non-union work. Say honestly whether your production is a union signatory.
• Safety, permits and insurance for your shoot, and the rules for minors in section 2.

Never ask applicants for money. Applicants choose what to share (a note, a reel link, a résumé); the project's owner sees it. Hiring decisions and their consequences are between the people involved. Members can invite others to apply; an invitation isn't an offer of work.

9. Brand gigs and creators

Brand campaigns and gigs (UGC videos, influencer posts and similar) follow the rules for roles in section 8, plus these:

• Disclosure. Brands and creators must follow the US Federal Trade Commission's Endorsement Guides: a post that promotes a brand in exchange for pay, free products or any other benefit must clearly disclose that connection (for example “#ad” or a platform's paid-partnership label).
• No fake reviews. Content must not pose as an independent customer review or testimonial when it isn't, or make claims about a product that the brand can't back up.
• Usage rights. What the brand may do with a creator's content (where, for how long, whether in paid ads or whitelisting) is agreed between them. The usage fields on a gig and a rate card describe the offer; put the final terms in writing.
• Creator details. Follower counts, rate cards and samples are what the creator reports. We don't verify them.

10. Money and funding

We don't handle money between members. We never collect, hold or pay fees, wages, deferred pay, rate-card prices or profits between members. Anything you agree to pay or be paid is between you and the other person. We charge only for our own services, such as creator sourcing (section 10a).

No investment offers. Don't use FilmIndustry.com to offer or sell investments in a project, including shares, profit participations (“points”) or loans, in exchange for money. Offering investments is regulated by securities laws, and FilmIndustry.com isn't a broker, funding portal or investment adviser. You may say whether a project is funded or seeking funding; talk to a lawyer before discussing any investment with anyone. Points given to team members for their work, recorded in team agreements, aren't affected by this rule.

10a. Paid services for brands

Brands can pay FilmIndustry.com to find creators for a campaign (“creator sourcing”). We confirm the brief and the fee before you pay; payment is processed by Stripe, and we never see your full card details. For the fee, we post your gig and send you a shortlist of the agreed number of creators who, in our judgement, fit your brief, within the agreed time after payment. If we can't find that many suitable creators, we refund the fee in full. Otherwise the fee isn't refundable once we've sent the shortlist, because the work has been done. We don't guarantee that any creator will accept your offer or produce particular results. You agree terms with the creators you choose and pay them directly; our fee doesn't include anything you pay them, and we take no commission from them. Prices may include or exclude sales tax as shown at checkout.

11. Votes, the dream cast and outreach

Verified members can vote for film projects, once per project. A project's “dream cast” is the creator's wishlist only: naming someone doesn't mean they're involved in or endorse the project, and you must not suggest otherwise, here or anywhere you share it. Dream casts show names only, never photos.

When a project reaches a vote milestone, FilmIndustry.com may, at its sole discretion, review it and contact the representatives of people in its dream cast, on behalf of the project's creator, to ask if they'd like to read it. You agree we may share your project's public details (title, logline, genres, stage, the dream cast and vote count) for that purpose. We do this for free, don't negotiate or accept terms for anyone, don't represent the people we contact, and don't promise any reply or outcome. Please don't contact the people in your dream cast or their representatives about our outreach yourself. Votes that look manipulated may be discounted. We may change how milestones work, but a milestone already reached keeps the threshold that applied when it was reached.

12. Team agreements

The team agreements feature lets a project owner and a team member record the terms they've agreed (role, credit, pay, deferred pay, points, ownership of the work). Accepted terms can be legally binding between the two of you, but they're not a complete contract, we didn't write them, and they're not legal advice. We're not a party to them and don't enforce them. Put them in a full written agreement before work starts or money changes hands, ideally reviewed by an entertainment lawyer. We keep a dated record of every version and acceptance as described in the Privacy Policy.

13. Listings posted for others, and claiming them

With a production's, school's or brand's permission, FilmIndustry.com staff may post a listing on its behalf. It shows “posted by FilmIndustry.com for” that organisation. When you apply to such a listing, your application (your name, profile link, note and reel link, but not your email address or résumé) is emailed to the organisation's contact address. The organisation can claim the listing with a private link; once claimed, it's theirs and these Terms apply to them like any other member. The claim link must not be shared.

14. Messages, reports, moderation and ending your account

You can report content and block members. To keep people safe, our staff may review content that's been reported, including messages. We may remove or hide content, limit features, or suspend or close accounts that break these Terms, put others at risk, or create legal risk for us, with or without notice where the law allows. You can delete your account at any time in Settings; the Privacy Policy explains what happens to your data. Sections 5 (for retained records), 6, 10 and 15 to 20 survive the end of your account.

15. Copyright complaints

If you believe content on FilmIndustry.com infringes your copyright, send a notice under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) to our designated agent: Philip A., 1411 Federal Ave, Ste 6, Los Angeles, CA 90025, dmca@filmindustry.com. Include: your signature; the work you say is infringed; where the material is on the Service; your contact details; a statement that you believe in good faith the use isn't authorised; and a statement, under penalty of perjury, that your notice is accurate and you're the owner or authorised to act for them.

If we remove your content after a notice and you believe that was a mistake, you can send us a counter-notice with the details the DMCA requires; we'll forward it to the person who complained and may restore the content after 10 to 14 business days unless they tell us they've gone to court. We close the accounts of repeat infringers.

16. Third-party data and services

Film credits on profiles come from Wikidata, a free public database (CC0). ZIP code data © GeoNames (CC BY 4.0). Links to other sites, such as reels and samples, are the responsibility of those sites. Third-party data can be wrong or incomplete, and we don't guarantee it.

17. Disclaimers

The Service is provided “as is” and “as available”. To the fullest extent the law allows, we disclaim all warranties, express or implied, including merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose, non-infringement, and that the Service will be uninterrupted, secure or error-free. We don't guarantee that any member, project, listing, job, gig, payment, credit, follower count or outreach is genuine, lawful or successful.

18. Limits on liability, and indemnity

To the fullest extent the law allows: FilmIndustry.com isn't liable for indirect, incidental, special, consequential or punitive damages, or for lost profits, revenue, data or opportunities; we aren't responsible for what members or other third parties do, on or off the Service; and our total liability for all claims relating to the Service is limited to the greater of US$100 or the amount you paid us in the 12 months before the claim. Some laws don't allow these limits, so they may not all apply to you; nothing here limits liability for our fraud, gross negligence or wilful misconduct.

You'll defend, indemnify and hold us harmless against claims, losses and costs (including reasonable lawyers' fees) arising from Your Content, your projects, listings and gigs, your dealings with other members, or your breach of these Terms or the law.

19. Disputes

These Terms are governed by the laws of the State of California and applicable US federal law, without regard to conflict-of-law rules. Before filing a claim, please email us at legal@filmindustry.com and give us 30 days to try to resolve it informally. Either of us may bring a claim in small-claims court if it qualifies. Otherwise, claims must be brought in the state or federal courts in Los Angeles County, California, and we both agree to those courts' jurisdiction. To the extent the law allows, claims must be brought individually, not as part of a class or representative action. Disputes between members are between them; we're not responsible for resolving them.

20. General

Changes. We may update these Terms. For material changes we'll tell you by email or in the Service at least 30 days before they take effect, and may ask you to accept them; using the Service after that means you accept them. Changes don't apply to disputes that arose before them.

Electronic notices. You agree we can give you notices electronically, by email or in the Service.

Feedback. If you send us suggestions, we may use them without owing you anything.

Other terms. These Terms and the Privacy Policy are the whole agreement between you and us about the Service. If a part is unenforceable, the rest stays in force. If we don't enforce a term right away, we can still enforce it later. You can't transfer these Terms; we may transfer them if FilmIndustry.com is merged or sold. Neither of us is responsible for delays caused by events beyond reasonable control.

21. Contact

SiteTools, Inc. d/b/a FilmIndustry.com, 1411 Federal Ave, Ste 6, Los Angeles, CA 90025 · support@filmindustry.com