Austen
Content ownership, originality
and AI disclosure policy · v1.0 · [date]

Content ownership, originality and AI disclosure

The three questions that stop a content purchase, answered in one document so that our website, our contract and our sales conversations cannot disagree with each other.

1. Ownership

The finished articlesYours, outright, on payment in full. Worldwide, in perpetuity, with no attribution requirement.
The briefsYours. They are part of the deliverable, not our working file. They remain reusable by you whoever writes the next set of articles.
The imagesYours, on the same terms. They are generated for your article and are not licensed stock.
Your style guide and brand voiceYours. It lives in your project and leaves with you. On request we return it in structured form, which is usually more useful than the document you gave us.
Reuse by usNone. Not for another customer, not as a sample, not in a case study, not as a portfolio piece, unless you agree in writing to a specific use.
Naming youWe will not name you as a customer, use your logo or publish a case study without your prior written consent, and consent to one of those is not consent to the others.
If you cancelYou keep every article delivered and every brief approved. Nothing is clawed back.
Model trainingWe do not train models. We call commercial model APIs. Each provider's own terms govern what it does with API traffic, and we will point you at the current version of those terms rather than paraphrase them.

2. Originality

What we say. Articles are generated from a brief you approve. They are not assembled from copied text, and research sources are used to ground the article rather than to supply sentences for it. If you identify a genuine match with existing published text in anything we deliver, we rewrite that article at no charge.

What we do not say. We do not claim "100% original" or "plagiarism free", because we do not run an automatic plagiarism scan by default and we will not assert something we do not measure. If a scan is a requirement for you, tell us at kickoff and we will build it into the process and price it.

Your questionOur answer
"Do you check facts?"Articles are researched against live sources, and a source the article draws on is linked where it is used. This is not a fact-checking service and your reviewer remains your reviewer. A claim that needs sign-off is flagged rather than asserted.
"Do you copy our competitors?"No. The competitor analysis produces a gap report of subjects and coverage, not text. It tells you what a competitor covers, never what they said.
"What about quoted material?"Where an article quotes a source it is attributed and linked. If your house style forbids external links, tell us at kickoff.
"Who is responsible if something is wrong?"You review before publication, as you would with any supplier's draft. Our liability is set out in the pilot agreement.

3. AI disclosure

Our position. Every article is produced by an AI content pipeline from a brief you approve, and is edited by a professional human editor before delivery. Whether you disclose that to your readers is your decision. We will supply a disclosure line on request, we will not object to disclosure, and we will not require it. Where a platform rule, a client contract or a professional obligation requires disclosure, that obligation takes precedence and meeting it is your responsibility.

What the search guidance actually says

Google's published guidance on generative AI content says three things worth knowing exactly, because the summary that circulates is usually wrong:

Source: Google Search Central, "Google Search's guidance about AI-generated content", last updated 10 December 2025. We will send you the link rather than ask you to take our word for it.

Where else it comes up

SituationWhat governsWhat to do
You resell the content to your own clientsYour client contractCheck it before the pilot rather than after. If a client has a no-AI clause, do not use us on that account and we will not be offended
You sell through a freelance marketplaceThe platform's policy. Fiverr, for example, requires AI use to be disclosed on request and requires a buyer's pre-order no-AI instruction to be honouredRead the platform's current policy and follow it
Publisher branded or sponsored contentThe sponsor's contractGet the disclosure rules in writing at kickoff
Academic or education marketing contentInstitutional policy, which differs from the policy on student and research workAsk which policy applies to marketing and prospectus copy specifically
Regulated claims: financial, medical, supplementsYour regulator and your own reviewerDisclosure is not the issue, the claim is. Your reviewer stays in the loop and we do not replace them

A disclosure line, if you want one

This article was produced with AI assistance from a brief approved by our team, and was edited by a professional editor before publication.

It is accurate, it is short, and it says the part that matters to a reader, which is that a person edited it. Change it to whatever fits your house style.

4. Where this document sits

The commitments here are reflected in clauses 7, 8, 9 and 10 of the content pilot agreement. If this document and that agreement ever disagree, the agreement governs and this document is wrong and must be corrected.

[Your company name] · company number [number] · [registered office] · not legal advice · review once with a solicitor before first use