A Terms and Conditions is not required and it's not mandatory by law.
Unlike Privacy Policies, which are required by laws such as the GDPR, CalOPPA and many others, there's no law or regulation on Terms and Conditions.
However, having a Terms and Conditions gives you the right to terminate the access of abusive users or to terminate the access to users who do not follow your rules and guidelines, as well as other desirable business benefits.
It's extremely important to have this agreement if you operate a SaaS app.
Here are a few examples of how this agreement can help you:
If users abuse your website or mobile app in any way, you can terminate their account. Your "Termination" clause can inform users that their accounts would be terminated if they abuse your service.
If users can post content on your website or mobile app (create content and share it on your platform), you can remove any content they created if it infringes copyright. Your Terms and Conditions will inform users that they can only create and/or share content they own rights to. Similarly, if users can register for an account and choose a username, you can inform users that they are not allowed to choose usernames that may infringe trademarks, i.e. usernames like Google, Facebook, and so on.
If you sell products or services, you could cancel specific orders if a product price is incorrect. Your Terms and Conditions can include a clause to inform users that certain orders, at your sole discretion, can be canceled if the products ordered have incorrect prices due to various errors.
And many more examples.
In summary, while you do not legally need a Terms and Conditions agreement, there are many many reasons for you to have one. Not only will it make your business look more professional and trustworthy, but you'll also be maintaining more control over how your users are able to interact with your platforms and content.
What Information to Include in Terms and Conditions
In your Terms and Conditions, you can include rules and guidelines on how users can access and use your website and mobile app.
Here are a few examples:
An Intellectual Property clause will inform users that the contents, logo and other visual media you created is your property and is protected by copyright laws.
A Termination clause will inform users that any accounts on your website and mobile app, or users' access to your website and app, can be terminated in case of abuses or at your sole discretion.
A Governing Law clause will inform users which laws govern the agreement. These laws should come from the country in which your company is headquartered or the country from which you operate your website and mobile app.
A Links to Other Websites clause will inform users that you are not responsible for any third party websites that you link to. This kind of clause will generally inform users that they are responsible for reading and agreeing (or disagreeing) with the Terms and Conditions or Privacy Policies of these third parties.
If your website or mobile app allows users to create content and make that content public to other users, a Content clause will inform users that they own the rights to the content they have created. This clause usually mentions that users must give you (the website or mobile app developer/owner) a license so that you can share this content on your website/mobile app and to make it available to other users.
Because the content created by users is public to other users, a DMCA notice clause (or Copyright Infringement ) section is helpful to inform users and copyright authors that, if any content is found to be a copyright infringement, you will respond to any DMCA takedown notices received and you will take down the content.
A Limit What Users Can Do clause can inform users that by agreeing to use your service, they're also agreeing to not do certain things. This can be part of a very long and thorough list in your Terms and Conditions agreement so as to encompass the most amount of negative uses.
Behance is a platform for creative professionals around the world to showcase their own work and to discover the creative work of others through three key features: Search (Discover), Live, and Jobs. These Behance Community Guidelines (“Guidelines”) govern your use of Behance to maintain an engaging and trustworthy community that fosters creativity across the platform, and are incorporate by reference into the Adobe’s Terms of Use.
Unless otherwise noted in the Guidelines, the same rules apply to all content on Behance. If you come across content that violates these Guidelines, please follow the instructions in the 'Report Abuse' section below. We take these to heart and hope that you'll do the same as well.
1. Be Respectful and Safe
Behance is the leading online platform to showcase and discover creative work. To protect our users and maintain the high quality of content across the platform we don’t allow abusive or illegal content or behavior. This includes, but is not limited to, the following:
Spam or posts related to the sale of non-creative goods or services
Fraud or scams
Pornographic material and explicit nudity
Harassment and threats
Hateful or highly offensive content that attacks or dehumanizes a group based on race, ethnicity, national origin, religion, serious disease or disability, gender, age, or sexual orientation
Graphic violence or gore
The promotion, glorification, or threats of violence
Illegal activities or goods
Self-harm or the promotion of self-harm
Depictions of minors in a sexual manner
Promotion of terrorism or violent extremism
Dissemination of misleading, fraudulent, or deceptive content that could lead to real-world harm
Personal or private information of others (like full name, home address, phone number, email address, government issued IDs, or anything else that would let someone locate or contact you in the real world))
Please note that we may report any material exploiting minors to the National Center of Missing & Exploited Children (NCMEC) CyberTipline.
Adult Content
Behance is all about helping creative people get exposure for their work, and so we offer an adult content filter (the “Adult Wall”) that allows qualifying projects to be available to as broad an audience as possible. Many countries, schools, and companies will block websites without this feature.
Projects should go behind the Adult Wall if they contain adult content (this includes nudity, profanity, violence or any other material unsuitable for a younger audience, a global audience or people at work). To do this, go into the Settings for a specific project and select “This project contains adult content” under the “Content” heading. Content behind the Adult Wall is available only to registered Behance users who are over 18 and who live in countries where adult content is legal (for more on this topic, view the Helpcenter page about Adult Content on Behance).
Public and Shared Content
The Adult Wall is only available to projects currently. Profile images and banner images, “Work in Progress” images, livestreams, jobs, comments, messages, Behance Creator Subscriptions, and other interactions on Behance must be appropriate for an audience of all ages and geographies and should not contain adult content.
2. Be Supportive
We value artistic expression, but we ask that you keep your comments, private messages, and other communications constructive and respectful. We don't tolerate abusive, vulgar or insulting comments and messages.
3. Be Authentic
The Behance community is for people to bring their authentic selves and to publicly share one’s own creative work. We disable accounts that engage in behavior that undermines the authenticity of our community, including but not limited to, the following deceptive or harmful behaviors:
Using fake, misleading, or inaccurate information in your profile
Impersonating other people or entities
Falsely attributing someone’s work
Using automated or scripting processes (such as bulk or automated uploading of content through a script)
Engaging in schemes or third-party services to boost account engagement (artificially increasing the number of appreciations, views, or other metrics)
Broadcasting or uploading other people’s work as your own is copyright infringement and is not tolerated. If you aren’t sure whether your use of someone else’s content or trademark in your work is legal, you can talk to an attorney or consult publicly available reference materials at the following:
U.S. Copyright Office
U.S. Patent & Trademark Office
Lumen
If you want to report the misuse of your own creative work or your own trademark by one of our users, you can do that here: Reporting Infringement on Adobe’s Network. If you have a contract or other dispute with Behance user about content they have uploaded to our site, please resolve the issue directly with the user. We can't moderate contract, employment, or other disputes between our users and the public.
4. Additional Guidelines
In addition to all the guidelines above, certain features within Behance require you to follow additional guidelines.
Livestreaming
You must be 16 years old to livestream on Behance Live.
Streamers are not allowed to broadcast streams that promote dangerous, reckless, or criminal behavior (e.g., driving while streaming, playing with a firearm).
Streams are broadcasted around the world, so please be mindful of what you display and be aware of the following:
What you are streaming on your desktop and browser (e.g., browser history, browser tabs)
What can be seen in the surrounding environment (e.g., artwork, personal information, people who may not want to be streamed)
What you are wearing or displaying on your body (e.g., no nudity allowed, see-through shirts, profanity on clothing)
Livestreaming grant of rights: In connection with livestreaming, you grant to Adobe the irrevocable, royalty-free, fully paid-up, worldwide, right, license, and privilege to:
Record the livestream including any presentation materials and allow for the livestream to be available for viewing on various platforms, including but not limited to Adobe properties;
Use, record, distribute, publish, publicly display the streamer's name, likeness, picture, photo, image, voice, appearance, and performance; and
Use, copy, reproduce, modify, distribute, make derivative works of, publicly perform, and publicly display any and all visual materials you choose to share during the livestream.
Behance Creator Subscriptions
Behance Creator Subscriptions allow Creators to make additional artistic content available to paying users ("subscribers") on their Creator Subscription Page. This includes providing subscribers access to exclusive projects, livestreams and source files. Creator Subscriptions cannot be used:
To fund non-activity (for example, don't engage in spammy behavior and only agree to stop in exchange for subscriptions).
To crowdfund or fundraise for any goods or non-creative services.
If you violate any of the above, your Creator Subscription may get suspended, along with your subscriptions.
Unlike Privacy Policies, which are required by laws such as the GDPR, CalOPPA and many others, there's no law or regulation on Terms and Conditions.
However, having a Terms and Conditions gives you the right to terminate the access of abusive users or to terminate the access to users who do not follow your rules and guidelines, as well as other desirable business benefits.
It's extremely important to have this agreement if you operate a SaaS app.
Here are a few examples of how this agreement can help you:
If users abuse your website or mobile app in any way, you can terminate their account. Your "Termination" clause can inform users that their accounts would be terminated if they abuse your service.
If users can post content on your website or mobile app (create content and share it on your platform), you can remove any content they created if it infringes copyright. Your Terms and Conditions will inform users that they can only create and/or share content they own rights to. Similarly, if users can register for an account and choose a username, you can inform users that they are not allowed to choose usernames that may infringe trademarks, i.e. usernames like Google, Facebook, and so on.
If you sell products or services, you could cancel specific orders if a product price is incorrect. Your Terms and Conditions can include a clause to inform users that certain orders, at your sole discretion, can be canceled if the products ordered have incorrect prices due to various errors.
And many more examples.
In summary, while you do not legally need a Terms and Conditions agreement, there are many many reasons for you to have one. Not only will it make your business look more professional and trustworthy, but you'll also be maintaining more control over how your users are able to interact with your platforms and content.
What Information to Include in Terms and Conditions
In your Terms and Conditions, you can include rules and guidelines on how users can access and use your website and mobile app.
Here are a few examples:
An Intellectual Property clause will inform users that the contents, logo and other visual media you created is your property and is protected by copyright laws.
A Termination clause will inform users that any accounts on your website and mobile app, or users' access to your website and app, can be terminated in case of abuses or at your sole discretion.
A Governing Law clause will inform users which laws govern the agreement. These laws should come from the country in which your company is headquartered or the country from which you operate your website and mobile app.
A Links to Other Websites clause will inform users that you are not responsible for any third party websites that you link to. This kind of clause will generally inform users that they are responsible for reading and agreeing (or disagreeing) with the Terms and Conditions or Privacy Policies of these third parties.
If your website or mobile app allows users to create content and make that content public to other users, a Content clause will inform users that they own the rights to the content they have created. This clause usually mentions that users must give you (the website or mobile app developer/owner) a license so that you can share this content on your website/mobile app and to make it available to other users.
Because the content created by users is public to other users, a DMCA notice clause (or Copyright Infringement ) section is helpful to inform users and copyright authors that, if any content is found to be a copyright infringement, you will respond to any DMCA takedown notices received and you will take down the content.
A Limit What Users Can Do clause can inform users that by agreeing to use your service, they're also agreeing to not do certain things. This can be part of a very long and thorough list in your Terms and Conditions agreement so as to encompass the most amount of negative uses.
Behance is a platform for creative professionals around the world to showcase their own work and to discover the creative work of others through three key features: Search (Discover), Live, and Jobs. These Behance Community Guidelines (“Guidelines”) govern your use of Behance to maintain an engaging and trustworthy community that fosters creativity across the platform, and are incorporate by reference into the Adobe’s Terms of Use.
Unless otherwise noted in the Guidelines, the same rules apply to all content on Behance. If you come across content that violates these Guidelines, please follow the instructions in the 'Report Abuse' section below. We take these to heart and hope that you'll do the same as well.
1. Be Respectful and Safe
Behance is the leading online platform to showcase and discover creative work. To protect our users and maintain the high quality of content across the platform we don’t allow abusive or illegal content or behavior. This includes, but is not limited to, the following:
Spam or posts related to the sale of non-creative goods or services
Fraud or scams
Pornographic material and explicit nudity
Harassment and threats
Hateful or highly offensive content that attacks or dehumanizes a group based on race, ethnicity, national origin, religion, serious disease or disability, gender, age, or sexual orientation
Graphic violence or gore
The promotion, glorification, or threats of violence
Illegal activities or goods
Self-harm or the promotion of self-harm
Depictions of minors in a sexual manner
Promotion of terrorism or violent extremism
Dissemination of misleading, fraudulent, or deceptive content that could lead to real-world harm
Personal or private information of others (like full name, home address, phone number, email address, government issued IDs, or anything else that would let someone locate or contact you in the real world))
Please note that we may report any material exploiting minors to the National Center of Missing & Exploited Children (NCMEC) CyberTipline.
Adult Content
Behance is all about helping creative people get exposure for their work, and so we offer an adult content filter (the “Adult Wall”) that allows qualifying projects to be available to as broad an audience as possible. Many countries, schools, and companies will block websites without this feature.
Projects should go behind the Adult Wall if they contain adult content (this includes nudity, profanity, violence or any other material unsuitable for a younger audience, a global audience or people at work). To do this, go into the Settings for a specific project and select “This project contains adult content” under the “Content” heading. Content behind the Adult Wall is available only to registered Behance users who are over 18 and who live in countries where adult content is legal (for more on this topic, view the Helpcenter page about Adult Content on Behance).
Public and Shared Content
The Adult Wall is only available to projects currently. Profile images and banner images, “Work in Progress” images, livestreams, jobs, comments, messages, Behance Creator Subscriptions, and other interactions on Behance must be appropriate for an audience of all ages and geographies and should not contain adult content.
2. Be Supportive
We value artistic expression, but we ask that you keep your comments, private messages, and other communications constructive and respectful. We don't tolerate abusive, vulgar or insulting comments and messages.
3. Be Authentic
The Behance community is for people to bring their authentic selves and to publicly share one’s own creative work. We disable accounts that engage in behavior that undermines the authenticity of our community, including but not limited to, the following deceptive or harmful behaviors:
Using fake, misleading, or inaccurate information in your profile
Impersonating other people or entities
Falsely attributing someone’s work
Using automated or scripting processes (such as bulk or automated uploading of content through a script)
Engaging in schemes or third-party services to boost account engagement (artificially increasing the number of appreciations, views, or other metrics)
Broadcasting or uploading other people’s work as your own is copyright infringement and is not tolerated. If you aren’t sure whether your use of someone else’s content or trademark in your work is legal, you can talk to an attorney or consult publicly available reference materials at the following:
U.S. Copyright Office
U.S. Patent & Trademark Office
Lumen
If you want to report the misuse of your own creative work or your own trademark by one of our users, you can do that here: Reporting Infringement on Adobe’s Network. If you have a contract or other dispute with Behance user about content they have uploaded to our site, please resolve the issue directly with the user. We can't moderate contract, employment, or other disputes between our users and the public.
4. Additional Guidelines
In addition to all the guidelines above, certain features within Behance require you to follow additional guidelines.
Livestreaming
You must be 16 years old to livestream on Behance Live.
Streamers are not allowed to broadcast streams that promote dangerous, reckless, or criminal behavior (e.g., driving while streaming, playing with a firearm).
Streams are broadcasted around the world, so please be mindful of what you display and be aware of the following:
What you are streaming on your desktop and browser (e.g., browser history, browser tabs)
What can be seen in the surrounding environment (e.g., artwork, personal information, people who may not want to be streamed)
What you are wearing or displaying on your body (e.g., no nudity allowed, see-through shirts, profanity on clothing)
Livestreaming grant of rights: In connection with livestreaming, you grant to Adobe the irrevocable, royalty-free, fully paid-up, worldwide, right, license, and privilege to:
Record the livestream including any presentation materials and allow for the livestream to be available for viewing on various platforms, including but not limited to Adobe properties;
Use, record, distribute, publish, publicly display the streamer's name, likeness, picture, photo, image, voice, appearance, and performance; and
Use, copy, reproduce, modify, distribute, make derivative works of, publicly perform, and publicly display any and all visual materials you choose to share during the livestream.
Behance Creator Subscriptions
Behance Creator Subscriptions allow Creators to make additional artistic content available to paying users ("subscribers") on their Creator Subscription Page. This includes providing subscribers access to exclusive projects, livestreams and source files. Creator Subscriptions cannot be used:
To fund non-activity (for example, don't engage in spammy behavior and only agree to stop in exchange for subscriptions).
To crowdfund or fundraise for any goods or non-creative services.
If you violate any of the above, your Creator Subscription may get suspended, along with your subscriptions.