Content and Intellectual Property Policy¶
| Field | Value |
|---|---|
| Reference | POL-011 |
| Type | Policy |
| Version | 1.00 |
| Status | Approved |
| Owner | Standards & Welfare Officer |
| Approver | Board |
| Approval Reference | MIN-2026-08-02 |
| Effective Date | 2026-08-05 |
| Next Review | 2027-08-05 |
| Review Requirements | As defined in STD-001 |
| Classification | Public |
Purpose¶
To set out who owns content contributed to BRSA - articles, guides, photos, and similar material - and what BRSA can do with it. This matters directly for BRSA's own aims: educating and supporting the community (Constitution Section 3) depends on people being willing to contribute their knowledge, and that's easier when it's clear upfront what happens to what they submit.
Scope¶
Applies to content submitted by members or the public for use on BRSA's website or other channels (articles, guides, photos, and similar), and to content created by Committee members or volunteers specifically in an official BRSA capacity.
Content Created in an Official Capacity¶
Content created by a Committee member or volunteer specifically as part of their BRSA role (for example, an official care guide written by the Standards & Welfare Officer) belongs to BRSA from the outset.
Content Contributed by Members¶
For anything else - an article, photo, or guide someone submits voluntarily - the contributor keeps their own copyright. By submitting it, they grant BRSA a non-exclusive, royalty-free licence to publish, edit, and reproduce it on BRSA's own platforms. BRSA does not need them to sign over ownership to use what they've shared.
Contributors are credited where reasonable to do so.
A contributor can ask for their content to be taken down. BRSA will remove it from where it's published going forward, though this can't undo copies already made by others before removal (for example, someone who saved or shared it independently).
Contributor Responsibility¶
Anyone submitting content is responsible for making sure it doesn't infringe someone else's copyright - for example, not submitting a photo they don't hold the rights to.
Photos Involving People¶
Where content includes identifiable people, this overlaps with data protection (POL-004) and, where a child is identifiable, safeguarding (POL-008) - a parent or guardian's consent matters more, and different care is needed around captions or tagging, when a photo includes a child. This policy doesn't repeat that detail; POL-004 and POL-008 are the source for it.
Related Documents¶
- Constitution, Section 3 (Aims and Objects)
- POL-004 Privacy Policy
- POL-008 Safeguarding Policy
Review Requirements¶
As defined in STD-001.
Change History¶
| Version | Date | Author | Summary |
|---|---|---|---|
| 0.10 | 2026-07-24 | DC | Initial draft |
| 0.50 | 2026-07-24 | DC | Version -> 0.50; Status -> Review |
| 1.00 | 2026-08-05 | DC | Version -> 1.00; Approval Reference -> MIN-2026-08-02; Status -> Approved; Effective Date -> 2026-08-05; Last Reviewed -> 2026-08-05; Next Review -> 2027-08-05 |