Who Really Owns Your Film Online?
Content Ownership, Platform Power. Why Creators Are Rethinking Everything. Understand how Content Ownership, Content Rights, Media IP Rights and User Generated Content (UGC) rights shape control of
Who Really Owns Your Film Online?
If you make films, series, documentaries or any kind of digital media today, you’ve probably had that uneasy moment after uploading a video, sharing a screener or signing a deal:
“Do I still own this - or did I just hand it away?”
In the streaming era, the answer isn’t as clear as it should be. On paper, you keep content ownership. In practice, long licences, vague clauses, opaque reporting and platform control can leave you with far less power than you think. And earlier this year, the creative world got a stark reminder of how fragile creator rights and digital content rights can be.
When a Free Platform Claims Rights to Your Work
In mid-2025, WeTransfer quietly updated its Terms of Service, and buried inside was a clause that shocked filmmakers, designers, photographers and rights holders everywhere.
A perpetual, worldwide, royalty-free, transferable, sublicensable licence to reproduce, modify, distribute, publicly display and even use uploaded files for machine-learning and AI training. This raised serious concerns about AI and intellectual property rights and the protection of media IP rights for creators.
It was broad. It was unclear. And it was enough to trigger widespread panic across the creative industries.
Artists and filmmakers began to wonder:
“If this is what a file-transfer tool can claim… What are the big platforms claiming?”
The backlash was immediate. Legal commentators called the clause overreaching. Creators called it a rights grab. Within days, WeTransfer partially rolled back the update.
But the damage was done. Creators suddenly realised how easily their content rights and user generated content rights could slip away through a single paragraph of fine print - often on a platform they’d used for years without question.
Why Should Filmmakers Care About Platform Terms and Content Rights?
If a simple transfer service can overreach this far, imagine what rights sit inside:
streaming service delivery agreements
aggregator contracts
cloud-hosting policies
screener platform terms
social platform UGC clauses
AI-powered media tools
These are the places where creators unknowingly grant the kind of access that reshapes their control:
Private screeners could be duplicated or repurposed.
Unreleased cuts could feed AI models.
Archive material could be stored, analysed or reused without consent.
Fan data could become platform property.
Monetisation could be dependent on rules you never saw.
Copyright might still be yours - but control becomes someone else’s. This is how creators “lose their rights” without ever technically losing ownership. Understanding content rights and media IP rights is essential to maintaining control over your work.
What’s the Difference Between Owning a Film and Having the Rights to It?
Content ownership is the underlying copyright. It says the film is legally yours. Content rights are the permissions you grant - the territories, windows, platforms and formats your partners can use.
Most creators assume that if they keep copyright, they keep control. But that’s not how the system works.
If you grant:
worldwide rights
all media
long-term windows
platform exclusivity
Your content ownership becomes symbolic. You own the film, but you can’t do anything with it. Across a catalogue of work, those decisions compound. Your films become scattered, locked, unusable, and often invisible. Protecting digital content rights and user generated content rights ensures your work stays under your control.
How Do Streaming Platforms Actually License Films?
Platforms rarely buy a film outright. They licence what they need. By the time a title reaches them, the rights chain is already heavily diluted:
Producers
Co-producers
Sales Agents
Distributors
Aggregators
Sub-distributors
Somewhere in that chain, someone may have granted broad media IP rights for years at a time - often beyond what the filmmaker understood or intended. The platform gets clarity. The creator gets distance.
Meanwhile, UGC rights - the terms behind your trailers, clips and promos - add another layer of complexity. A single behind-the-scenes clip posted years ago may still be licensed to a social platform long after your distribution strategy has changed. The right landscape is no longer linear. It’s a maze. Protecting creator rights and content rights is more important than ever in the era of AI and platform dominance.
Is There a Platform That Doesn’t Take Rights to My Film?
Hiway was born out of this exact frustration: creators need tools, not traps. Where many platforms claim broad usage licences, Hiway does not. Where others take audience data as their own, Hiway does not. Where platforms absorb content into their ecosystem, Hiway keeps creators in control of theirs.
Hiway is built on three principles:
1. You own your IP - full stop
No perpetual licences.
No sublicensing.
No AI-training clauses.
No rights creep. AI and intellectual property rights are fully respected.
2. You own your data
Every viewer, every sale, every engagement metric belongs to you - not to us.
3. You control your monetisation
TVOD, rentals, purchases, subscriptions, global or geo-blocked releases - all set by you, with payouts directly into your account.
Hiway isn’t a streaming destination. It’s the right infrastructure. A system where:
your catalogue is organised
your rights map stays intact
your distribution remains flexible
your creator rights remain powerful
your user generated content rights are protected
your long-term strategy isn’t sabotaged by someone else’s fine print
In short: platforms want your rights. Hiway protects them.
How Do I Protect My Film Rights Online?
The WeTransfer incident wasn’t a glitch - it was a warning. In the age of AI, cloud services and platform dominance, creator rights aren’t eroded in one dramatic moment. They fade slowly through:
one clickwrap agreement
one delivery requirement
one vague upload licence
one forgotten clause
If you care about your IP, your audience, your revenue and your long-term catalogue value, you need an infrastructure that respects content rights and digital content rights. Because once the fine print claims your rights, it’s already too late. You deserve ownership. You deserve agency. You deserve control. Welcome to Hiway.