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<\/p>Sometimes we get asked for clarification on parts of the Teemill terms of use. The purpose of this document is to explain the principles behind the clauses and to contextualise some of the reasons the terms need to be structured the way they are. It is not intended to replace any part of the terms, only as a first stop for folks who might want to learn more about the shared terms for a shared platform.<\/p>
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Teemill is a software service built around a portal and website that you control and are responsible for operating. Similar well known user generated content websites include Facebook, Twitter, YouTube or eBay. The reason that platforms are good is that the costs of the tech is shared. Sharing means shared terms. That's why you probably did not hire a lawyer to negotiate a personal legal agreement for your Twitter account, or your eBay account, or your favourite rent a car company. Or unique contracts for the way you want to use Microsoft Word. Or Teemill.<\/p>
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The service includes a storefront that you control, you can customise, and where the public can purchase your content, plus a connection to an automated fulfilment service so that your content can be printed and shipped if someone wants to buy a print. Teemill is primarily an internet technology, not a traditional wholesale supplier of goods. The Teemill contract is designed specifically for the user-operated model and is designed around the technology, its features and capabilities. When you have access to the platform, you have access to all features and the terms are universal.<\/p>
Teemill store owners access the Teemill platform by creating an account. The software is all online. This means you have access to reports, the ability to create or edit products, download content, publish content and access and use tools that we create. The agreements are built around core principles:<\/p>
Use and misuse<\/p><\/li>
Intellectual property and licensing of rights<\/p><\/li>
Data protection and GDPR<\/p><\/li>
Specific features and promises or otherwise<\/p><\/li>
Indemnities and warranties and special conditions<\/p><\/li><\/ul>
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Use and misuse<\/strong><\/p> Because Teemill is a platform that contains free content and tools that enable you to both download media and upload content, we may ask you to agree that you will not misuse these features. For example the agreement may contain provisions to ensure you explicitly agree that things we provide free to help you with marketing or social media are provided under a license from us to you that\u2019s conditional on using that content for the promotion of your Teemill store. Or we may ask you to acknowledge you or your team will not upload offensive of racist content to Teemill, or take or copy any of our features and benefits or use Teemill in a similarly disingenuous way.<\/p> Intellectual property and ownership<\/strong><\/p> Teemill is designed to allow and enable you to sell your t-shirt designs online. To do this your designs are uploaded onto Teemill using our tech and by providing the service to generate an online store, your products can be sold. When an item sells on a store powered by Teemill technology, Teemill must have the rights to actually do this.<\/p> So that Teemill has the right to display or otherwise use your content this is achieved with the granting of a license. This means that you agree as part of the terms that when you upload content to Teemill (for example, your logo or trademarked design) you grant Teemill some basic rights like the right to store it on our servers, perhaps put it on a model which might mean cropping or merging it with another image, plus the right to display it for sale online and sell it.<\/p> We also obtain the right to use your content to market your stuff or to market Teemill in general. That's because there are some connected features like the AI\u2019s that control \u201cfollow around ads\u201d that come built in to Teemill for free that you can access when you are logged in along with lots of other tools including analysis and reporting. It makes it fast and easy for our team to contact you and help out, say if a reporter wants to talk about Teemill and some awesome brands using the service and asks if they can feature you - or if one of our team wants to feature your store on our blog. This license is relatively broad because it is based on the wide variety of opportunities and tools within Teemill that enable you and your team to do a wide variety of things relating to the internet and online marketing. Using these features is optional, but access is not conditional - in other words so that you can access Teemill you must accept that that if <\/em>you use a feature you or your team will use them according to the terms. Remember, whether you then do use them or not is up to you - you're in control.<\/p> And you're in control of your brand IP too. We don't take your artwork or brand identity and keep it forever - the data retention policy (and the privacy by design features in Teemill) and common sense says that when you delete your data, your data the data is deleted, and when you delete your store the contract is ended. We just need the rights to what you upload so we can do stuff like host the images on our server, or print your logo on a t-shirt for the duration of the contract. Trademarks are yours. This is explicitly clear in the terms that you retain the rights and permissions to your designs or photos you upload. You can also delete your store at any time, and after you do that we delete content like this. You can find out more about how we store and delete data in our data retention policy and privacy policy.<\/p> At this point, to break things up a bit, it's worth asking a stupid question...<\/strong><\/p> Quite often we get asked lots of questions, sometimes even by lawyers, on why the Teemill terms are different to the usual terms of sale in typical supplier relationships.<\/p> The terms make sense if you understand what the software does. Please take the time to familiarise yourself with what Teemill does. We politely ask that you don't demand changes to something you haven't looked at.<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote> Sometimes we get asked why the clause about granting worldwide rights to IP is so broad. There are two reasons, first is because in your testing, you will have discovered the massive range of tools within Teemill and an almost infinite number of things you can do with them - all of which is connected to the internet and so has global reach. We don't just print t-shirts and host web stores, we provide free tools. What humans can do with software tools connected to the internet is very broad.<\/p> Secondly because IP is about more than just designs: If you give us some feedback, for example, we might built it into the platform but that means that everyone can use it too.<\/p> Part of the deal is that you accept that in return for submitting an idea to our team, if we built it into Teemill for free, you cannot then send a bill to everyone who uses Teemill. Without that common sense agreement, we would never be able to talk. Remember, you're in control, you don't have to upload anything you don't want to, and you can delete uploaded content whenever you want. From your experience familiarising yourself with Teemill, you will know that you are ultimately in control - both in terms of being responsible for what you do with the tools and platform, and also the fact that you can delete anything up to and including your entire store and the data within it whenever you want.<\/p> Business model<\/strong><\/p> As well as clarification of the basic license exchange, the terms include the basic transactional model of Teemill, which is that there is no setup or running costs to pay to Teemill.<\/p> Teemill is also a platform not a license contract and there are no guaranteed payments. You are paid a percentage for each product you sell after time is allowed for returns and exchanges. If you do not sell anything, you will not be billed.<\/p><\/blockquote> Equally we do not commit to pay you if you create a store and do not sell any products. This profitability relationship is different to what some people may be used to. It is around double the traditional licensing percentage - because there is no stock risk, we are able to pay you more. The percentage is net.<\/p> It may be less than what some brands may be able to make gross<\/em> by printing and holding stock themselves because using sustainable materials, audited factories and the advanced technology that makes real time manufacturing possible is not a cheap and easy thing.<\/p> GDPR<\/strong><\/p> The Teemill platform is built with compliance in mind. Customer data is stored by Teemill according to our privacy policy and store operators cannot by default access, view or export any personally identifiable information. While you can use our tools to embed tracking pixels or even schedule a newsletter, it is done via our platform and subject to our terms and privacy policy (e.g. the newsletter tool only allows you to add content relevant to your store and send to people who have agreed). Teemill is accountable and responsible for the raw data and it is impossible to download personally identifiable information that belongs to a customer. No data sharing agreement is needed because the raw data is not shared.<\/p> Specific features and promises or otherwise<\/strong><\/p> Teemill is an open source platform that is provided for free. It is built and maintained by professionals and a study of our digital security policy and related documentation will show that it is a secure and reliable modern platform. It does not come with unreasonable warranties, for example, covering your losses if there is downtime - it is a free website.<\/p> There are clauses that insure Teemill against misuse of the free product. The platform is a user-generated content platform, ie. you control it and so we expect you to agree to give assurances you will not use it to cause Teemill losses. This is common sense, for example, if you lose your password and your store is wiped, or harmful content is uploaded to it that causes damage to your reputation, that is your responsibility for losing your password - your store is your responsibility.<\/p> This is not a unique relationship<\/strong><\/p> Teemill is a modern digital business not a traditional brick and mortar supplier. Our platform is used by tens of thousands of businesses and startups all over the world that have access to a common set of features and tools.<\/p> The platform features are shared with all users. That means the terms need to be phrased for everyone.<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote> If you are a charity for example, you may not find explicit charity regulation in the main body, but careful interpretation of the framing will show compliance with the relevant legislation for your sector. In any cases the laws of England and Wales explicitly governs the performance and interpretation of the terms of use.<\/p> The future is fast, digital and we are constantly improving our platform. This means that if you would like a feature, we would love to hear about it and we may be able to add this feature to the platform. That is why we maintain the right to update the contract. If we weren't able to add to it, we wouldn't be free to improve Teemill. We always consult and inform platform users when we make changes.<\/p> At the same time, any and all features are available to all users because Teemill is a platform - or to put it another way, we do not build an entire custom software architecture for each user - that's why we don't build custom contracts for users either, based on your idea of what you want Teemill to be.<\/p>![\"\"](\"https:\/\/images.teemill.com\/5d42ba35476345.12525496.png.jpg?w=1140&h=auto\" "\\"35439021\\"")
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