When you publish anything on Medium, you give Medium permanent permission to use, copy, change, and share that content worldwide for free, including your name and likeness, across any media format that exists now or is invented later.
This analysis describes what Medium's agreement states, permits, or reserves. It does not constitute a legal determination about enforceability. Regulatory applicability and practical outcomes may vary by jurisdiction, enforcement context, and individual circumstances. Read our methodology
This license is broad and sublicensable, meaning Medium can pass these rights to third parties, and it covers modifications to your content, not just reproduction as-is.
Writers who post on Medium grant Medium the right to modify and redistribute their content globally at no cost, with no express limitation tied to account deletion or content removal, which may affect how creators think about IP ownership over their published work.
How other platforms handle this
By making available any Content through the Service, you grant to Pinterest a non-exclusive, royalty-free, transferable, sublicensable, worldwide license to use, copy, modify, create derivative works based upon, distribute, publicly display, and publicly perform your Content in connection with opera...
By submitting User Content through the Services, you grant 23andMe a royalty-free, worldwide, perpetual, irrevocable, non-exclusive, transferable license to use, reproduce, modify, perform, display, distribute, or otherwise disclose to third parties any such material for any purpose.
If you do post content or submit material, and unless we indicate otherwise, you grant Amazon a nonexclusive, royalty-free, perpetual, irrevocable, and fully sublicensable right to use, reproduce, modify, adapt, publish, translate, create derivative works from, distribute, and display such content t...
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"By posting content to Medium, you give us a nonexclusive, royalty-free, worldwide, fully paid, and sublicensable license to use, reproduce, modify, distribute, publish, translate, publicly perform and display your content and any name, username or likeness provided in connection with your content in all media formats and channels now known or later developed without compensation to you.— Excerpt from Medium's Medium Terms of Service
(1) REGULATORY LANDSCAPE: The scope of this license may engage GDPR Article 6 lawful basis requirements for EU users, particularly regarding the processing of personal data embedded in content (names, likenesses). The FTC Act is relevant if the license is applied in ways that diverge from reasonable user expectation without adequate disclosure. Where content includes third-party data or images, IP and data protection laws in multiple jurisdictions may constrain how Medium exercises sublicensable rights. (2) GOVERNANCE EXPOSURE: High. The sublicensable, royalty-free, worldwide license with no defined expiration linked to content removal creates material IP risk for organizations whose employees post proprietary research, analysis, or creative work on Medium. The absence of an explicit AI training carve-out or restriction in the posted terms means the license language, as written, could be read to permit use of user content for model training, though Medium has not explicitly stated this is a current practice. (3) JURISDICTION FLAGS: EU and EEA users may have grounds to challenge the breadth of this license under GDPR's data minimization and purpose limitation principles, particularly where content includes personal data. California users may invoke CCPA rights regarding personal information embedded in content. The license's application to 'name and likeness' may engage state right-of-publicity laws in Illinois, New York, and California. (4) CONTRACT AND VENDOR IMPLICATIONS: Organizations that allow employees to publish on Medium should assess whether internal IP policies restrict posting of confidential or proprietary material given this license. B2B contracts involving content delivery to Medium's platform should be reviewed for compatibility with this sublicensable grant. The license does not appear to include an audit right or notification mechanism for downstream sublicensing. (5) COMPLIANCE CONSIDERATIONS: Legal teams should determine whether Medium's content license is addressed in employee acceptable-use policies. Content creators and publishers should review whether the absence of a license termination trigger upon content deletion creates residual IP exposure. Organizations in regulated industries (financial services, healthcare) should assess whether employee-authored content published on Medium could inadvertently disclose regulated information under this broad license framework.
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This license is broad and sublicensable, meaning Medium can pass these rights to third parties, and it covers modifications to your content, not just reproduction as-is.
Writers who post on Medium grant Medium the right to modify and redistribute their content globally at no cost, with no express limitation tied to account deletion or content removal, which may affect how creators think about IP ownership over their published work.
ConductAtlas has identified this type of provision across 5 platforms. See the full comparison.
No. ConductAtlas is an independent monitoring service. We are not affiliated with, endorsed by, or sponsored by Medium.