Community and copyright policy
This policy applies to the features that exist in the beta: the creative tools you use in your own browser, the sounds the app offers you, the Community at hearhood.com/community/, and how to report a problem. Member pages, follows, messages and playable Produce song links are available. A licensed commercial-song catalogue and recorded-audio uploads for public hosting are not.
A place to create and learn
Treat other people with respect. You can write to the operator through Feedback, publish community posts, or exchange direct messages with members. Do not use these features for harassment, threats, discrimination, spam or other people's private information, and do not send knowingly false reports. Constructive criticism of Hearhood is welcome and is never a reason to restrict an account.
The Community
The Community is a public forum for people with a Hearhood account. Anyone can read it; to post you choose a display name, which is shown with your posts. A new member's first post is checked by the team before it appears; after that, posts appear at once and are reviewed afterwards. Posts are text with links, and may carry pictures you upload; a YouTube, Vimeo or SoundCloud link shows as a player from that service, under that service's terms. Every member also has a page of their own with the same rules. Keep posts about music and the tools. You are responsible for what you post: upload only pictures you made or have the right to share (you confirm this with every upload), and link only to things you have the right to share. If someone tells us a picture or post infringes their rights, we take it down and may remove the member's ability to post; the Report section below says how to tell us. You can edit a post for fifteen minutes after writing it and delete your own posts at any time; deleting your account removes your posts from view. The operator may hide, lock, pin or remove posts and may stop an account from posting, for example for spam, abuse, illegal content or a rights problem; see Report and Decisions below. Posts are kept as long as the Community exists or until you delete them.
Members can also follow each other and send each other private messages from a member's page. A private message is seen by the two members in the conversation and is not public; the team does not read it unless one of the two reports the conversation, in which case the last messages are shown to the team so it can act (for example by stopping a member from posting or messaging). You can mute a conversation at any time, after which the other member can no longer write to you, and you can block a member from their page: you then no longer see each other's posts, and neither of you can message or follow the other. The same rules apply as for posts: no spam, abuse or illegal content. Deleting your account removes your conversations. Notifications (including replies, followers, approvals, messages, likes and remixes) appear inside Hearhood. If you opt in on a supported device, its browser can also show a generic notification to check Hearhood; this requires browser permission and is separate from email preferences. If you opt in to the weekly summary, the email can summarise activity; it can be switched off in Account settings.
Your own music and other people's work
Use material only when you hold the rights or another valid legal basis applies. Crediting someone does not replace permission. Owning a song or a streaming subscription allows you to listen, not to publish, remix or share it. A DJ mix can involve rights in every recording and every composition in it. What you do with the app on your own device, for yourself, is your responsibility; the beta does not publish anything for you, and it does not offer public commercial-song mixes or catalogue uploads. If you create a Produce song link or a community post, that is a sharing action you choose: use only material you have permission to share and remix.
Do not use another person's voice or likeness to deceive anyone about their involvement.
Free music from the Internet Archive
The DJ area can search the Internet Archive (archive.org) for music that independent artists and small labels have released under Creative Commons licences, and download tracks to your device. The app shows each release's licence as the Archive lists it, only accepts tracks marked with a licence it recognises (CC BY, CC BY-SA, CC0 or Public Domain Mark), and links to the release page. Hearhood does not host that music, did not choose it by ear, and cannot promise that every uploader labelled a release correctly: an archive listing is not a clearance.
The licence conditions are yours to meet. A CC BY or CC BY-SA track needs credit to the artist whenever you share a mix that contains it; BY-SA also requires sharing under the same licence; and none of these licences lets you claim the track as your own. The app writes an attribution text for a mix (the "credits" file) to help; whether the use is allowed, and whether the credit is complete, remains your responsibility.
Instrument sounds in the Studio
The instruments and drum kits in the Studio are recordings from openly licensed sample libraries, prepared for the app. They are under CC0 1.0 (no attribution required) or CC BY 3.0 (attribution required). The full list with sources, licences and the required attribution lines is in the app's sound library credits (sounds/CREDITS.md in the public repository). When you release music made with the two CC BY instruments (Salamander Grand Piano by Alexander Holm; Wurlitzer EP200 samples by Greg Sullivan), include their attribution lines. Nothing in the library is under a non-commercial, no-derivatives or share-alike licence.
Report illegal content or a rights problem
Use Feedback in the app with the category "Report content or a problem", or write to info@hearhood.com. Say exactly what you are reporting (the feature, the track or release, the page), why you believe it is unlawful or infringes your rights, and, for a rights claim, which work is yours and your authority to act. Include a name and email address unless a legal exception lets you leave them out, and confirm that you believe the report is accurate and complete. You do not need an account to report; the Feedback button works without one.
We acknowledge receipt where we have contact details and explain our decision without undue delay. Reports are assessed on their merits by the operator, a person; there is no automated moderation system. We may ask for clarification, stop offering a listed item during review, remove unlawful material we control, or restrict an account proportionately. Urgent threats to safety come first. We do not promise to monitor everything, and a report is not accepted just because it is repeated.
Decisions and review
Where we restrict an account or remove something, we tell the person affected the facts, the reason, what was restricted and for how long, and how to ask for a review, where the law permits and requires it. Ask for a review at info@hearhood.com, quoting our reference. This voluntary review does not limit your access to courts or other statutory remedies. Repeated or serious infringement, fraud or abuse can lead to account restrictions or closure after a proportionate assessment.
Later features
Member pages, following and playable Produce song links already work. Authorised commercial-catalogue listening, listener subscriptions and artist earnings remain plans. If they are built, they will come with their own rules and agreements before anything is published, and this policy will be updated first. The optional interest form is not a music licence. Sharing and remix credits do not transfer ownership or replace the permissions required for the material; the terms describe the limited processing needed to provide a feature you choose.