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Derivative Works

Definition: A clause governing the right to create derivative works — modified, adapted, or transformed versions — of platform content, user content, or licensed material. It appears either as a right the platform grants itself, or a restriction it imposes on others. This wiki also tracks the keyword prepare derivative here (used by Moltbook, Reddit, TruthSocial, and WhatsApp’s Terms of Service), since it’s a near-duplicate tag, not a distinct clause type, and doesn’t need its own page. Risk level: When a platform claims broad “create derivative works” rights over user content, that goes far beyond simple redistribution — it allows remixing, retraining, or repackaging content in ways the original creator likely never anticipated or specifically consented to. The same phrase used as a restriction on developers or licensees instead limits how far third parties can build on platform data.

Platforms Using This Clause

Common Wording

(d) sell, rent, lease, sublicense, distribute, redistribute, syndicate, create derivative works of, assign or otherwise transfer or provide access to, in whole or in part, the Licensed Material to any third party except as expressly permitted in this Agreement… — X, Other (Developer Agreement, Restrictions on Use), 2024-02-21 — a restriction on developers’ use of X-provided API content.

If you want to reproduce, modify, create derivative works, distribute, sell, transfer, publicly display, publicly perform, transmit, or otherwise use the Services or Content on the Services, you must use the interfaces and instructions we provide, except as permitted through the Services, these Terms, or the terms provided on Developer Terms. Otherwise, all such actions are strictly prohibited. — X, Terms of Service, 2024-02-21 (present, with cosmetic link/rebrand edits only, through 2026-01-16) — restricts users/developers from creating derivative works of X’s Services or Content outside X-approved channels.

Child-Directed API Clients 1. If your API Client (or any part thereof) targets or directs itself to children (as defined under applicable law(s) including the U.S. Children’s Online Privacy (COPPA) and E.U. General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR))… — YouTube, Other (API Services Terms of Service), 2022-07-11 — note: this snippet is tagged derivative works in the source data but neither “derivative” nor “create derivative” appears anywhere in the captured text (verified). It actually covers Child-Directed API Client/COPPA-GDPR obligations. Flagged as a likely keyword/window-alignment mismatch (see that page’s Overview) rather than a confirmed derivative-works clause.

b) sell, rent, lease, sublicense, distribute, redistribute, syndicate, create derivative works of, assign or otherwise transfer or provide access to, in whole or in part, the Licensed Material to any third party except as expressly permitted in this Agreement… — Twitter, Other (Developer Agreement, Restrictions on Use), 2022-07-11 — the direct historical predecessor of X’s near-identical restriction above.

If you want to reproduce, modify, create derivative works, distribute, sell, transfer, publicly display, publicly perform, transmit, or otherwise use the Services or Content on the Services, you must use the interfaces and instructions we provide, except as permitted through the Twitter Services, these Terms, or the terms provided on https://developer.twitter.com/en/developer-terms. — Twitter, Terms of Service, 2022-09-05 (present in substance through 2023-10-11) — the same restriction X’s Terms of Service carries today, but notably without X’s later “Otherwise, all such actions are strictly prohibited” closing sentence — that enforcement language was added sometime between Twitter’s 2023-10-11 scrape and X’s 2024-02-21 baseline.

Except as expressly licensed herein, you will not use, access, integrate with, modify, translate, create derivative works of, reverse engineer, or otherwise exploit Platform or any aspect thereof. — Facebook, Other (Platform Terms, “Our License to You”), 2022-07-11 — restricts developers from creating derivative works of Meta’s Platform, the same restriction direction as X/Twitter’s “Other” pages. Facebook’s “Your License to Us” clause separately grants Meta the right to “create derivative works of” App-routed data — the opposite direction, confirmed in the same document (see Royalty-Free).

…you grant us a non-exclusive, transferable, sub-licensable, and worldwide license to host, use, distribute, modify, run, copy, publicly perform or display, translate, and create derivative works of your content… This license is only for the purpose of making our Products available to you… You can end this license any time by deleting your content or account. — Facebook, Terms of Service, 2022-07-11 (present in substance throughout) — Meta granting itself the right to create derivative works of user Content, narrower in purpose than X’s “for any purpose” grant and uniquely user-terminable at will (via content/account deletion).

…you hereby grant to us a non-exclusive, transferable, sub-licensable, worldwide license to host, use, distribute, modify, run, copy, publicly perform or display, translate, and create derivative works of your content (consistent with your privacy and application settings) for purposes of making the Instagram Service available… This license will end when your content is deleted from our systems. — Instagram, Terms of Service, 2022-07-11 (present in substance throughout) — structurally similar to Facebook’s Terms of Service grant (same purpose-limited, deletion-terminable pattern) but independently drafted, not byte-identical text.

you grant us a worldwide, royalty-free, perpetual, irrevocable, non-exclusive, transferable, and sublicensable license to use, copy, modify, adapt, prepare derivative works of, distribute, store, perform, and display Your Content… — Reddit, Terms of Service, 2022-07-11 (present in substance throughout) — Reddit’s source-data keyword tag is prepare derivative rather than create derivative/derivative works, but the clause is the same type of right: the platform claiming the ability to modify and remix user Content, here as part of the broadest single-sentence grant in the wiki (see Royalty-Free).

By creating, posting or otherwise making content available on the Platform, you grant to TikTok a: … licence to use your content, including to reproduce (e.g. to copy), adapt or make derivative works (e.g. to translate and/or create captions), perform and communicate your content to the public… — TikTok, Terms of Service, 2023-01-11 (rewritten 2025-06-25 to also grant a parallel derivative-works license directly to every other Platform user — see Royalty-Free) — TikTok claims this right for itself like Facebook/Instagram, but is the first platform in the wiki to extend the same right to ordinary users as well.

Except as expressly authorized by LinkedIn in writing, copy, modify or create derivative works of the Jobs Services or any related technology… — LinkedIn, Terms of Service, 2022-07-11 (confirmed present through 2023-08-08; absent from the document by 2023-10-15, confirmed via raw cross-check that the entire B2B Jobs Services section was removed — see that platform page’s Overview) — the restriction direction: a ban on LinkedIn’s hiring-customers creating derivative works of LinkedIn’s Jobs Services technology, part of a detailed anti-fraud/anti-scraping clause cluster.

You hereby grant us a non-exclusive, perpetual, irrevocable, worldwide, sublicensable, transferable, royalty free, fully paid up license to reproduce, distribute, prepare derivative works of, modify, translate, adapt, publicly perform, publicly display and otherwise use any of Your Data, and you understand that we may allow any third party to use Your Data. — Moltbook, Terms of Service, 2026-03-18 (tagged prepare derivative in source data — same clause type per this wiki’s convention) — the platform-claims-it-for-itself direction, applied to “Your Data” (behavioral/usage data) rather than Content, with an explicit right for Moltbook to let any third party use that Data — broader than Reddit’s equivalent grant, which is scoped to Content only.

You grant Pinterest and our users a non-exclusive, royalty-free, transferable, sublicensable, worldwide license to use, store, display, reproduce, save, modify, create derivative works, perform, and distribute your User Content on Pinterest solely for the purposes of operating, developing, providing, and using Pinterest. — Pinterest, Terms of Service, 2022-07-11 (present in substance throughout 17 scrapes) — the earliest confirmed user-to-user derivative-works grant in this wiki’s dataset, predating TikTok’s 2025-06-25 rewrite by more than two years.

This license also includes the right for other users of the Quora Platform to use, copy, reproduce, adapt, modify, create derivative works from, publish, transmit, display, and distribute, translate, communicate and make available to the public Your Content, subject to our Terms of Service. — Quora, Terms of Service, 2022-07-11 (present in substance throughout) — a third confirmed user-to-user grant, same baseline date as Pinterest’s. Separately, Quora’s “Restricted Uses” clause shows the restriction direction in the same document: third parties are banned from using automated/AI/ML means “to create derivative works of Our Content and Materials” — confirming both directions of this keyword co-exist in Quora’s Terms of Service, the same dual-direction pattern previously seen on Facebook’s “Other” page.

Because Public Content is inherently public, you grant Snap, our affiliates, other users of the Services, and our business partners… a worldwide, royalty-free, and irrevocable right and licence to create derivative works from, promote, exhibit, broadcast, syndicate, reproduce, distribute, synchronise, overlay graphics and auditory effects on, publicly perform, and publicly display all or any portion of your Public Content… — Snapchat, Terms of Service, 2022-07-11 (present in substance throughout 34 scrapes; strengthened 2024-03-07 to “unrestricted… and perpetual” — see Irrevocable) — a fourth confirmed user-to-user derivative-works grant at the same 2022-07-11 baseline date as Pinterest’s and Quora’s, scoped to Public Content.

…reverse-engineering, decompiling, disassembling, modifying, or creating derivative works, except where such restriction is expressly prohibited by applicable law. — Spotify, Acceptable Use Policy, 2023-05-08 (present unchanged in substance across all 4 scrapes through 2025-10-03) — the restriction direction: bans users from creating derivative works of Spotify’s Services/Content, part of a broader Prohibited Uses list that also explicitly bans AI/ML training on Content (see Train AI/Models).

Accordingly, you hereby grant to Spotify a non-exclusive, transferable, sub-licensable, royalty-free, fully paid, irrevocable, worldwide license to reproduce, make available, perform and display, translate, modify, create derivative works from, distribute, and otherwise use any such User Content… — Spotify, Terms of Service, 2022-07-11 (present in substance throughout 12 scrapes) — the platform-claims-it-for-itself direction over User Content, granted to Spotify alone, not extended to other users — confirming Spotify shows both directions for this keyword across its two document types (Acceptable Use Policy restricts users; Terms of Service grants the right to Spotify).

If you upload or share any Threads Content, you hereby grant us a non-exclusive, transferable, sub-licensable, worldwide license to host, use, distribute, modify, run, copy, publicly perform or display, translate and create derivative works of your Threads Content (consistent with your privacy and application settings) for the purpose of making the Threads Service available, including, as applicable, sharing your Threads Content to and with Third Party Users and on Third Party Services that are also integrated with the Protocol. — Threads, Terms of Service, 2024-08-30 (present in substance throughout all 125 scrapes through 2026-03-25, with the persistence-after-deletion sentence strengthened 2026-01-22 — see Transferable) — the platform-claims-it-for-itself direction, distinctive for explicitly extending the license to sharing Content onto independent, Meta-uncontrolled Third Party Servers via Threads’ fediverse “Protocol” integration.

…and to prepare derivative works of, or incorporate into other works, such Contributions, and grant and authorize sublicenses of the foregoing. — TruthSocial, Terms of Service, 2024-03-14 (present in substance throughout 14 scrapes) — tagged prepare derivative in source data, the same clause type as Reddit’s/Moltbook’s; part of the broadest single-sentence Content grant confirmed in this wiki — see Royalty-Free.

Content License to You: As a User of the Services, Tumblr grants you a worldwide, revocable, non-exclusive, non-sublicensable, and non-transferable license to download, store, view, display, perform, redistribute, and create derivative works of Content solely in connection with your use of… the Services… This means, for example, that we license Content to you for purposes of reblogging. — Tumblr, Terms of Service, 2022-07-11 (present in substance throughout 14 scrapes) — the restriction direction, but reciprocal rather than developer-facing: a revocable, non-transferable license Tumblr grants to users over other users’ Content, mirroring the broader license Tumblr takes from users in the same document — together implementing reblogging as two separate, mirrored grants rather than one combined user-to-user sentence (contrast with Pinterest’s/Quora’s/Snapchat’s single-sentence user-to-user grants).

…you grant Twitch and its sub-licensees… a right to: (a) use, reproduce, modify, adapt, publish, translate, create derivative works from, distribute, perform, and display such User Content… [2025-04-10:] …you grant each other Twitch user… a license to: (a) use, reproduce, modify, adapt, publish, translate, create derivative works from, distribute, perform, and display your User Content… — Twitch, Terms of Service, 2022-07-11 (baseline grant to Twitch; genuinely extended 2025-04-10, confirmed via diff, to add a near-identical license running to other Twitch users for content-sharing functionality) — see Royalty-Free for the full analysis. A separate, unrelated restriction elsewhere in the Terms also bans users from “modify[ing], adapt[ing], translat[ing], or creat[ing] derivative works based upon the Twitch Services” itself — the restriction direction, protecting Twitch’s own software rather than User Content.

You may not copy, modify, create derivative works, reverse compile, reverse engineer or extract source codes from WeChat Software, and you may not sell, distribute, redistribute or sublicense WeChat or the WeChat Software… — WeChat, Terms of Service, 2022-07-11 (present in substance throughout 8 scrapes) — the restriction direction, protecting WeChat’s own software rather than User Content, the same structural pattern as Twitch’s anti-derivative-works “Don’t.”

…you grant WhatsApp a worldwide, non-exclusive, royalty-free, sublicensable, and transferable license to use, reproduce, distribute, create derivative works of, display, and perform the information… [and separately, in “Harm To WhatsApp Or Our Users”:] …access, use, copy, adapt, modify, prepare derivative works based upon, distribute, license, sublicense, transfer, display, perform, or otherwise exploit our Services in impermissible or unauthorized manners… — WhatsApp, Terms of Service, 2022-07-11 (present in substance throughout 7 scrapes) — both directions confirmed in one document, like Twitch’s Terms of Service: a grant over user Content, and a separate restriction protecting the Service itself, here using the prepare derivative variant of the keyword rather than create derivative.

Notes & Trends

Both confirmed X occurrences, plus Twitter’s pre-rebrand Developer Agreement and Terms of Service, point the same direction: the platform restricts others from creating derivative works of its Services/Content/API material outside channels it controls, rather than claiming that right for itself outright (that right is instead folded into X’s broader “process, adapt, modify” Content license — see Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning). The YouTube occurrence remains unconfirmed — the captured text covers an unrelated child-safety compliance requirement, with no derivative-works language present, and shouldn’t be cited as evidence of a derivative-works clause without checking the full source document. Facebook’s “Other” page is the first confirmed occurrence of both directions in a single document — Meta both claims the right to create derivative works of App data, and restricts developers from doing the same to its Platform. Facebook’s Terms of Service adds the user-facing version of the platform-claims-it-for-itself direction, and is notable for being terminable by the user at any time (via deletion), unlike X’s grant. Instagram’s “Other” page carries the identical clause to Facebook’s, confirming the Platform Terms apply Meta-wide. Instagram’s Terms of Service, however, is independently drafted (zero byte-exact overlap with Facebook’s ToS) despite matching the same structural pattern — Meta doesn’t copy-paste its consumer Terms of Service across platforms the way it does its developer Platform Terms. Reddit’s Terms of Service uses a different keyword tag for the same concept (“prepare derivative” rather than “create derivative”), a reminder that this wiki tracks the underlying clause type, not just exact keyword strings. TikTok’s Terms of Service adds a notable variant on 2025-06-25: a derivative-works license granted not just to the platform but directly to every other user — though Pinterest’s and Quora’s Terms of Service show this user-to-user pattern was already present in this wiki’s dataset since at least 2022-07-11 (see Royalty-Free), so TikTok’s is a dated, diff-confirmed rewrite introducing the pattern there, not the wiki’s first occurrence of it. LinkedIn’s Terms of Service adds a B2B restriction variant not seen elsewhere: a ban on hiring-customers creating derivative works of LinkedIn’s Jobs Services technology itself (not Content) — and is also the first confirmed case in this wiki of a clause genuinely disappearing from a document due to restructuring (verified via raw cross-check), rather than persisting under different wording or being a scraper artifact. Moltbook’s Terms of Service extends the platform-claims-it-for-itself direction to “Your Data” specifically (not Content), and is the only platform confirmed to explicitly permit any third party to use that derivative-rights-bearing Data. Snapchat’s Terms of Service is a fourth confirmed user-to-user grant at the same 2022-07-11 baseline date, reinforcing that this pattern was common among 2022-era platforms rather than a recent development. Spotify’s Acceptable Use Policy returns to the restriction direction, banning users from creating derivative works of the Services as part of a broader anti-AI-training Prohibited Uses list. Spotify’s Terms of Service shows the platform-claims-it-for-itself direction in the same company’s other document — confirming this is a platform that shows both directions for this keyword depending on which document is doing the disclosing, the same pattern previously seen on Facebook’s “Other” page and Quora’s Terms of Service. Threads’ Terms of Service adds a distinctive variant: the platform-claims-it-for-itself grant explicitly contemplates Content being shared onto independent Third Party Servers via the decentralized “Protocol” (ActivityPub/fediverse) — a persistence risk most other platforms’ Content licenses don’t address, since the content can keep existing on servers Meta itself doesn’t control. TruthSocial’s Terms of Service is the third platform (after Reddit and Moltbook) tagged prepare derivative, part of the broadest single-sentence grant in this wiki by qualifier count. Tumblr’s Terms of Service is the first platform confirmed to implement a user-to-user-style reblogging pattern as two separate, mirrored license grants (Tumblr-from-users, users-from-Tumblr) rather than one combined sentence — and the reciprocal grant to users is, unusually, revocable and non-transferable rather than another maximal license. Twitch’s Terms of Service adds a second confirmed-via-diff strengthening case (after Snapchat’s): the baseline platform-only Content license was joined in 2025 by an added user-to-user sub-clause, while a separate restriction elsewhere in the same document bans creating derivative works of the Service itself — showing both the grant and restriction directions in one document, like Facebook’s/Instagram’s “Other” pages do for sublicense. WeChat’s Terms of Service adds another restriction-direction occurrence, protecting WeChat Software itself rather than User Content, the same structural pattern as Twitch’s anti-derivative-works “Don’t.” WhatsApp’s Terms of Service shows both directions in one document like Twitch’s, but uses the prepare derivative variant for its restriction clause rather than create derivative.