Rights & Ownership
This page exists because we'd rather you understand exactly what happens to your story than take our word for it. If anything here is unclear, ask before you submit.
Who owns the story
You do — fully and exclusively, for as long as you own it under applicable law. Submitting a story to Sadeqi Story does not transfer copyright, and we never claim to "own" what you write.
What you grant us by submitting
A limited, non-exclusive, revocable license to store, display, and distribute your submission on the platform for the purposes of community discovery, blind review, feedback, revision, voting, and — if your story is selected — production. This license lets reviewers read it and lets the site show it to readers; it does not let us sell it, license it to unrelated third parties, or use it for anything outside those purposes.
What we do not receive
We do not receive ownership of your copyright, the right to publish your story anywhere outside the platform, the right to create derivative works unrelated to the production process described below, or any exclusivity that would stop you from publishing or submitting your story elsewhere while it's in early-stage review.
Submission → review → revision
The moment your story is submitted, our servers record a timestamp and a content fingerprint (a SHA-256 hash) for that exact version, and for every revision afterward. You can see this on your submission record page for each story. This is an internal, auditable record of what you submitted and when — it is not a copyright registration, and hashing text does not itself create or prove legal ownership. It's evidence you can point to, not a substitute for registering copyright with the appropriate government office if you want that additional protection.
If your story becomes a finalist or wins
Reaching the shortlist, becoming a finalist, or winning a cycle does not by itself change your rights. Only if your story is selected for production does the production license below take effect.
If your story is selected for production
You grant Sadeqi Story a license — specific to that story, not a blanket claim on your future work — to adapt it into a film using AI-assisted production tools: generating a screenplay adaptation, scene and shot breakdowns, prompts for image/video/voice generation, and to edit, finalize, and distribute the resulting film under the Sadeqi Story name. You keep authorship credit. Anything beyond this — merchandising, sequels, adaptations outside the platform — is not included unless you separately agree to it in writing.
AI providers and generated assets
Production uses third-party AI tools (for example, image, video, and voice generation services); we don't lock the platform to one vendor, and the specific tools used for a given film are disclosed on that film's page under "How this film was made." Generated assets (video, audio, images) created during your story's production are owned and licensed for distribution by Sadeqi Story for the purpose of releasing that film; your underlying story remains yours.
Withdrawal
You can withdraw an unselected submission at any time from your dashboard, which ends the review/display license for that story. A story already in production, or already released as a film, can't be un-released, but you can still withdraw it from active competition or future promotion — contact us if that situation applies to you.
Attribution
During blind review, your identity is hidden from reviewers by design. Once a story is public (shortlisted, a finalist, a winner, or released), your author name is shown alongside it and on any resulting film's credits, unless you've asked to publish under a pen name.
If someone claims your story is theirs
We don't remove a story on the strength of an unverified accusation alone. If you believe a submission infringes your work, contact us with the disputed story, an explanation, supporting evidence, and your contact information; we review claims before taking action and keep a record of the outcome.
Questions about any of this before you submit? Reach out — we'd rather answer than have you guess.