If you’re a CapCut user, you’ve probably heard about changes in its Terms of Service (ToS), where several content creators aired their concerns. As pointed out by social media Manager Mila Holmes, CapCut’s updated ToS claims the following:

1) CapCut gets licensing rights to all content uploaded on its platform.

2) You can get in trouble if the company uses it inappropriately.

This is what was mentioned in CapCut’s latest ToS as of June 12:

Except as expressly provided otherwise in these Terms, you or the owner of your User Content still own the copyright and any other intellectual property rights in User Content submitted to us, but by submitting User Content via the Services, you acknowledge and agree that you allow us to upload such content to our server and hereby grant us and our affiliates, agents, services providers, partners and other connected third parties an unconditional, irrevocable, non-exclusive, royalty-free, fully transferable (including sub-licensable), perpetual, worldwide license to use, modify, adapt, reproduce, make derivative works of, display, publish, transmit, distribute and/or store your User Content for providing the Services for you.

Terms like “perpetual, worldwide license to use” could be frightening and be of a concern among content creators, but Mashable makes an argument that the whole issue might be overblown. Other platforms have similar terms, and what the block of text means is that you still own the rights to your own content, and that the terms allows CapCut to use your content inthings like ads and crediting you for it. 

Content creator Seansvv explains it in his post, adding that the licensing part is not necessarily a new phenomenon, and that the reason CapCut placed that in its ToS is for features likes displaying and modifying content in the app. Mashable also adds that similar terms can be found in the ToS of Instagram and TikTok.

While there’s a chance that CapCut or other platforms may use these permissions that their users may disagree, things like Copyright and Terms of Service are complicated and are subject to interpretation. “It’s kind of like the barrier of entry, or the trade-off, when it comes to being able to join the platform and actually make money off of it or grow a following,” seanvv further explained in his post.

To make things short, CapCut does not own your content, but it can use it for some of its features like advertising while crediting you for the content.