Publishing terms
Your work remains yours. These terms govern submitting and publishing writing on Words in Bottles.
Ownership stays with you
You retain the copyright you hold in your original work. Publishing here does not transfer ownership to Words in Bottles or between your pen names. Existing employment agreements, assignments or third-party rights still apply; you must have the rights needed to submit your work.
A limited license to operate the service
By submitting work, you grant Words in Bottles a non-exclusive license to host, store, reproduce, display and distribute it as necessary to operate the service, deliver it to authorized readers, and show its title, chosen public byline, cover and preview in discovery and promotion. This is not a transfer of copyright or permission to sell your work to third parties for unrelated uses.
Drafts remain private. Paid article bodies are delivered only to authorized readers. If you unpublish an article, public distribution ends; private saved versions, operational backups and legally required records may remain. Unpublishing cannot recall copies readers already lawfully received.
Your account and your public name are separate
We privately associate submissions with the account responsible for them. Readers see only your chosen public byline. Private records may be used for moderation, disputes and legal obligations; pseudonymity is not a promise of absolute anonymity.
Account authentication, including email verification, is not verification of your real-world legal identity. Any future identity checks for payouts or legal purposes must be handled separately and privately.
A record, not proof of authorship
New saves retain version details, timestamps and SHA-256 fingerprints. You can inspect and export your records in your private workspace. Imported older records are marked where original submission times or bylines are unknown. These records establish what this account submitted and what the platform recorded, not conclusive proof of original authorship or legal ownership.
No obligation to keep producing
You do not owe an audience a schedule, sequel or repetition of a successful subject. Reader feedback belongs to individual articles and does not create an author reputation score.
These are the platform's publishing terms, not legal advice or a claim of completed independent legal review. Changes requiring renewed agreement will have a new version.
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