I do not feel comfortable with that clause either.
It also made me wonder how many similar points I may have already signed in older agreements without realizing it. For example, in the Pond5 contributor agreement, I found this section:
“3.a.(iv)we will have discretion to (A) market, promote, and distribute any Content in geographies, markets, and to customers and Distributors (as defined herein) that our traditional marketplace may not reach as optimally and in such instances your license to us includes the right and license throughout the world to do all of the foregoing and to authorize such Distributors (as defined below) to grant perpetual and term non-exclusive licenses to the Content to their customers under the Distributor’s own license agreements, which may include some or all of the rights that may be granted in the Website form of the Pond5 Content License Agreement…”
I suspect it’s essentially the same thing, just phrased differently. But since Pond5 feels more familiar compared to a Chinese company, it creates less unease. Thankfully, with today’s AI tools, it’s easier to spot such clauses.
EDIT: Out of curiosity, I also checked another company (MotionElements), and found a very similar clause there (feels a bit like opening Pandora’s box:-) ):
“3.a. Contributor hereby appoints MotionElements as its non-exclusive agent for the Content and grants to MotionElements a non-exclusive, worldwide license to distribute Contributor’s Content throughout the world and all rights to grant sublicenses to Content...”
