BBC launches new terms and conditions for digital services

Last week the BBC launched new Terms of Use that cover all of BBC’s digital services including bbc.co.uk, bbc.com and BBC’s apps. Kate Reid from the BBC Design & Engineering legal team explains the reasons behind the update.

We want it to be easy and quick for you to find what you are looking for when you click on our Terms of Use. So with some help from clever designers, copywriters and legal colleagues we’ve made these improvements:

Less to read: Our new Terms of Use is short. It’s 2/3 fewer words than our previous terms. Now you can find the answer to commonly asked questions in our Explainers. So you may not even need to read our full Terms of Use to find what you’re after.

Easier to understand what the rules are: The do’s and don’ts when you use our digital services should be easy for everyone to understand. Our testing has shown that somebody with a reading age of 12 can understand our Terms of Use. We explain in simple words the things that typically get written in legal jargon. We created 2 animations to explain key information. And we wrote some short Explainers for things that we know are important to you, like Who owns the content I post or upload? And Can I share things from the BBC?

What we do with your creations: it’s simpler to find out what BBC can do with the content you upload or post to the BBC. Read our Explainer or watch this animation.

Re-using BBC content for your own purposes: We also want you to understand what the rules are for using BBC content for your own purposes. Read our Explainers or watch the animation.

We’d love to know what you think.