Terms of Use
The following Terms of Use are a legal agreement between British Broadcasting Corporation (the “BBC”) and the individual or entity accepting these Terms of Use (“Participant”) specifying the terms and conditions of Participant’s installation and use of BBC Verb (as defined in the Terms of Use).
IMPORTANT: BY CLICKING “I ACCEPT”, DOWNLOADING, ACCESSING, INSTALLING OR USING BBC VERB (“ACCESS”), PARTICIPANT AGREES TO THESE TERMS OF USE AND THESE TERMS OF USE AND THE LICENSE GRANTED HEREUNDER COME INTO FORCE UPON PARTICIPANT ACCESS.
IF PARTICPANT DOES NOT ACCEPT THESE TERMS OF USE, THEY SHOULD NOT ACCESS, REFER TO OR OTHERWISE USE BBC VERB.
PARTICIPANT REPRESENTS AND WARRANTS THAT:
(a) it has full power, authority, and capacity to enter into and perform these Terms of Use;
(b) acceptance of these Terms of Use and performance of its obligations under it will not breach any other agreement by which Participant is bound; and
(c) if Participant is accepting these Terms of Use on behalf of an organisation, the individual accepting these Terms of Use has full authority to bind that organisation to the Terms of Use.
1. Definitions
1.1 In these Terms of Use the following terms have the following meanings:
“BBC Verb” means the software, application, service, prototype, data, Impulse Responses, Third Party Components, documentation, manuals, instruction guides, user documentation and other related materials and related technology of any kind pertaining to BBC Verb (whether in electronic, hard-copy or other media format) made available by the BBC.
“Confidential Information” means information (in whatever form) relating to the business or affairs of the BBC or Participant (each a
“Party”) which is disclosed at any time by or on behalf of that Party to the receiving Party, or otherwise is in the possession of the receiving Party, in connection with these Terms of Use:
(a) which is identified by any Party as confidential or is clearly by its nature confidential; and/or
(b) if the FOIA is applicable to such information, where Participant is the Party making the disclosure, designates it wishes (subject to clause 7.5 below) such information to be treated as exempt from disclosure under FOIA by notice in writing to the BBC; and
includes in relation to the BBC, the existence of BBC Verb (including the Impulse Responses and audio recordings made at BBC Maida Vale Studios), and any information relating to the performance, functionality or origin of BBC Verb.
“Feedback” means any comments, suggestions, recommendations, bug reports, requested enhancements, requested improvement, or other feedback relating to BBC Verb.
“Hackathon” means the Let’s Build! Audiotool hackathon event, including its judging activities, in connection with which BBC Verb is made available.
“Improvement” means any invention, enhancement, improvement, modification, development, adaptation, upgrade, update, change, bug fix, patch, error correction, and other update to BBC Verb, in machine readable executable form of a computer software program or otherwise, which is identified, suggested, designed or created by Participant.
“Impulse Responses” means an audio file that contains the actual, recorded atmosphere of an environment, room, or piece(s) of audio gear.
"IPR" means any and all proprietary rights and rights of use in intangible intellectual creations (such as technology, media, content, performances, works, materials, brands, and/or documentation) including patents; trade marks; design rights; copyrights; performers’ rights; moral rights; trade secrets; confidential information; rights in data, software, source code, user interfaces, computing models, algorithms, digital tools, computing or digital system frameworks and processes, and artificial intelligence; database rights; broadcast rights; rights in know-how, inventions, passing off, unfair competition, get-up, trade dress, domain names and website addresses; and all similar or equivalent rights or forms of protection; whether registered or unregistered, including rights to apply for and be granted such, which subsist or will subsist now or in the future, in any territory or part of the world (including physical, online or virtual locations);
“Participant Output” means any audio, content, materials, analyses, reports, results, projects or other outputs created by the Participant using, generated by, or processed through BBC Verb.
“Terms of Use” means these terms and conditions including the recitals, as may be amended from time to time in accordance with the terms.
“Third Party Components” means those portions of BBC Verb, if any, which are owned or controlled by third parties and licensed to the BBC pursuant and subject to certain license agreements or arrangements with such third parties.
1.2 In these Terms of Use:
1.2.1 unless the context otherwise requires, words signifying the singular number include the plural and vice versa;
1.2.2 every use of the words "herein", "hereof", “hereto” "hereunder" and similar words shall be construed to refer to these Terms of Use in their entirety and not to any particular provision hereof;
1.2.3 reference to any agreement or other document herein will be construed as referring to such agreement or other document as from time to time amended, modified or supplemented (subject to any restrictions on such amendment, modification or supplement set forth therein);
1.2.4 every use of the words “including” or “includes” is to be construed as meaning “including, without limitation” or “includes, without limitation”, respectively; and
1.2.5 references to a clause are to be construed as references to a clause of or to these Terms of Use unless otherwise specified.
1.2.6 clause headings shall not affect the interpretation of these Terms of Use;
1.2.7 a person includes an individual, corporate or unincorporated body (whether or not having separate legal personality) and that person's legal and personal representatives, successors or permitted assigns;
1.2.8 a reference to an entity or company shall include any company, corporation or other body corporate, wherever and however incorporated or established;
1.2.9 unless the context otherwise requires, a reference to one gender shall include a reference to the other genders;
1.2.10 a reference to a statute or statutory provision is a reference to it as it is in force as at the date of these Terms of Use and shall include all subordinate legislation made as at the date of these Terms of Use under that statute or statutory provision; and
1.2.11 a reference to writing or written includes faxes but not e-mail.
2. Licence Grant
2.1 Subject to the terms and conditions of these Terms of Use, the BBC grants Participant free of charge, a limited, revocable, non- exclusive, non-transferable and non-sublicensable, worldwide licence to access and use BBC Verb solely:
2.1.1 for Participant to test and evaluate BBC Verb during participation in, and in connection with, the Hackathon, including as part of Participant’s personal, professional, or commercial audio work;
2.1.2 to create Participant Output for use in accordance with clause 5.3 of these Terms of Use;
2.1.3 for the duration of the Hackathon only, being from [28 09 2026] up to and including [28 10 2026; and
2.1.4 via the download link provided by the BBC and on any number of computers that Participant owns or controls.
2.2 BBC Verb may comprise of Third Party Components. Participant acknowledges that such Third Party Components are not owned by the BBC and are subject to the separate licence terms provided with them. Participant is responsible for complying with such Third Party Component licence terms and clause 5 of these Terms of Use applies to Third Party Components.
2.3 The rights granted under clause 2.1 shall expire on the completion of the Hackathon.
3. Restrictions
3.1 Participant shall not:
3.1.1 access or use BBC Verb for any purpose other than as specified in clause 2.1 of these Terms of Use;
3.1.2 make any copy of BBC Verb or part thereof;
3.1.3 access or use BBC Verb upon completion of the Hackathon, expiry or termination of these Terms of Use, whichever is earlier;
3.1.4 copy, distribute, license, market, sell, charge for, publish, assign, transfer, export, translate, transmit, merge, loan, rent, lease, share, sub-license, make available for download on any website or otherwise make BBC Verb or its installer available to any third party, or extract, compile, organise or use BBC Verb to create datasets, knowledge bases, indexes or other artificial intelligence resources. For the avoidance of doubt, distributing Participant Output as permitted in clause 5.3 of these Terms of Use shall not be deemed a breach of this clause 3.1.4;
3.1.5 modify, adapt, reverse engineer, decompile or disassemble BBC Verb except to the extent such restriction is prohibited by applicable law;
3.1.6 extract, copy or export the Impulse Responses or other data built into BBC Verb, or use them outside BBC Verb, including to make, train or test another reverb, product or dataset;
3.1.7 remove or alter any copyright, trade mark or proprietary notices;
3.1.8 represent that BBC Verb, any output including Participant Output generated through BBC Verb, or any project created using BBC Verb has been approved, verified or endorsed by the BBC; or
3.1.9 publish, share, or otherwise make known to any third party or publicly that Participant Output and/or Impulse Responses were created or originate from recordings made at BBC Maida Vale Studios or attribute BBC Verb (including the Impulse Responses) or any Participant Output to BBC Maida Vale Studios.
3.2 Participant shall not access or use BBC Verb:
3.2.1 in any manner that is unlawful, promotes unlawful activity, or breaches applicable laws;
3.2.2 in a manner that infringes the intellectual property, privacy, confidentiality or other rights of any person;
3.2.3 to create, upload, process, transmit or distribute material that is defamatory, fraudulent, misleading, discriminatory, threatening, abusive or otherwise unlawful;
3.2.4 to introduce viruses, malware, malicious code or other harmful material;
3.2.5 to interfere with, disrupt, test, compromise or circumvent the security or integrity of BBC Verb;
3.2.6 to use any BBC trade marks, brands or logos;
3.2.7 in breach of any additional requirements communicated by the BBC in connection with BBC Verb or the Hackathon;
3.2.8 to input any personal data, special category personal data, confidential information belonging to a third party, or proprietary information, content, data, or materials belonging to a third party;
3.2.9 train, pre-train, fine-tune, adapt, benchmark, evaluate, improve or develop any artificial intelligence (including machine learning) system, or in any autonomous, semi-autonomous, agentic or multi-agent artificial intelligence system that can plan, make decisions, use tools or carry out tasks;
3.2.10 for text and data mining, semantic search, retrieval-augmented generation, artificial intelligence-powered search, query or answer tools, or similar functions;
3.2.11 to say or suggest that any artificial intelligence output was created, approved, or endorsed by the BBC; or
3.2.12 in a manner that is inconsistent with the licence granted in these Terms of Use or that will result in a breach of these Terms of Use.
3.3 Participant agrees to all reasonable precautions to prevent third parties from using BBC Verb in any way that would constitute a breach of these Terms of Use, including such precautions Participant would ordinarily take to protect its own proprietary software, hardware, data, or information.
3.4 Participant is solely responsible for ensuring it has all necessary rights and permissions in respect of any material, content, data, or information it provides, inputs, transmits in, or otherwise uses in connection with, BBC Verb.
3.5 Upon termination or expiry of these Terms of Use, or upon the conclusion of the Hackathon (whichever occurs first), Participant shall immediately:
3.5.1 cease and desist all access to and use of BBC Verb;
3.5.2 where Participant has downloaded and/or installed BBC Verb, uninstall and remove BBC Verb from all devices, systems and environments under Participant’s possession or control;
3.5.3 where Participant has downloaded and/or installed BBC Verb, permanently delete all copies of BBC Verb and all BBC Confidential Information in its possession or control; and
3.5.4 upon the BBC's reasonable request, certify in writing that it has complied with this clause 3.5.
4. Access
4.1 BBC Verb will be made available for access to Participant via an online webpage.
4.2 Participant acknowledges and agrees that:
4.2.1 BBC Verb has not been tested in all host applications, operating systems or configurations;
4.2.2 BBC Verb may contain errors;
4.2.3 the BBC has no obligation to support, update, provide bug fixes, workarounds, or any other corrections whatsoever to BBC Verb, and clause 5 of these Terms of Use applies; and
4.2.4 their access and use of BBC Verb is entirely at their own risk, and that they must ensure they keep backups of their projects.
5. No Warranty
5.1 BBC Verb, including the Impulse Responses and any Third Party Components, is provided on an "as is" and "as available" basis without warranty of any kind.
5.2 To the fullest extent permitted by law, the BBC excludes all warranties, representations and conditions, whether express or implied, including any warranty of satisfactory quality, fitness for a particular purpose, non-infringement, accuracy or uninterrupted availability.
6. IPR Ownership
5.1 BBC Verb. The BBC and Participant agree that all IPR in and to BBC Verb, together with all modifications and updates made by or on behalf of the BBC, shall vest and/or remain vested in the BBC (or its licensors where licensed to the BBC), and, except for the limited licence expressly granted at clause 2.1, these Terms of Use do not grant Participant any rights to, under or in, any IPR, or any other rights or licences in respect of BBC Verb.
5.2 Improvements and Feedback. In consideration of the sum of £1 (receipt of which Participant expressly acknowledges) Participant hereby assigns absolutely and with full title guarantee to the BBC all present and future IPR in any Improvements and Feedback created or owned by or on behalf of Participant. Participant must procure (and is responsible for paying for) the necessary assignments, licences and/or other permissions, and moral rights waiver under applicable laws to give effect to the assignment to the BBC. The BBC shall be under no obligation to implement any Improvements or Feedback and no compensation shall be payable in respect of them.
5.3 Participant Output. Subject to Participant performance of obligations in clause 2.1 of these Terms of Use, ownership of IPR in Participant Outputs shall remain with the Participant. Nothing in these Terms of Use transfers ownership of Participant Output to the BBC. Participant may use, publish, distribute, advertise, market, commercialise, sell, broadcast and otherwise use Participant Output without any payment to or permission from the BBC. Without prejudice to the foregoing, Participant shall not represent, advertise, market, publish, share or otherwise make known to any third party or publicly that any output including Participant Output was created or generated using or through BBC Verb, the Impulse Responses, or from recordings taken at BBC Maida Vale Studios, or that the BBC has approved, verified or endorsed any output including Participant Output. Participant shall not make any attribution to or credit the BBC in any output including Participant Output. The rights and restrictions in this clause 5.3 shall survive expiry or termination of these Terms of Use (or part thereof) in perpetuity.
7. Confidentiality and FOIA Disclosure
7.1 Except for the purposes of these Terms of Use, neither Party will use or make available to any third party at any time during or after the Agreement any Confidential Information of the other Party except nothing shall prevent a Party disclosing Confidential Information to the extent it:
7.1.1 is or later comes into the public domain otherwise than as a direct or indirect result of disclosure by the Party receiving the Confidential Information or a party engaged by that Party, contrary to their respective obligations of confidentiality;
7.1.2 is required to be disclosed in accordance with the Freedom of Information Act 2000 ("FOIA"), if applicable, or otherwise is required to be disclosed by law, order of court, the requirements of any regulatory authority or taxation authority or the rules of any stock exchange;
7.1.3 is disclosed with the prior written consent of the other Party;
7.1.4 is or becomes available to the other Party from third parties or is already known by the other Party, otherwise than pursuant to the Agreement and free of any restrictions as to its use or disclosure;
7.1.5 is independently developed by the other Party; or
7.1.6 is disclosed to its employees, professional advisors, agents and sub-contractors solely on a need-to-know basis provided the disclosing Party procures the person to whom such disclosure is made complies with the obligations under this Clause 7 as if it were a party to the Agreement.
7.2 Participant recognises, if FOIA is applicable to the Agreement, the BBC may be required to release information relating to any subject matter contained in the Agreement whether it is held by the BBC, Participant or by another person on behalf of the BBC to comply with its obligations under FOIA.
7.3 If the BBC receives a request for information under FOIA which covers any subject matter contained in the Agreement and requires assistance in obtaining such information, Participant shall (and shall procure any of its agents and/or sub-contractors) at its own cost ensure the BBC's request for assistance is responded to promptly and in any event within five (5) days of receipt.
7.4 If Participant receives a request for information under FOIA regarding the subject matter contained in the Agreement, it shall (and shall procure that any of its agents and sub-contractors) transfer to the BBC all such requests it receives as soon as possible and provide to the BBC with information the BBC may request promptly and in any event within five (5) days of receipt. Participant shall not respond directly to such a request for information under FOIA unless expressly authorised to do so by the BBC.
7.5 The BBC will have the sole responsibility for determining:
7.5.1 whether information (including Confidential Information) is exempt from disclosure under FOIA; and/or
7.5.2 what information (including Confidential Information) will be disclosed in response to a request for information under FOIA.
7.6 The confidentiality obligations in this clause 7 shall continue:
7.6.1 in respect of trade secrets, for so long as the relevant information remains a trade secret; and
7.6.2 in respect of all other Confidential Information, indefinitely or until the information enters the public domain other than through a breach of these Terms of Use,
and shall survive expiry or termination of these Terms of Use for any reason.
8. Publicity
8.1 Participant will not, in any manner, advertise, publish, or make known:
8.1.1 the fact that Participant has entered into these Terms of Use;
8.1.2 the existence of, or its access and use of, BBC Verb (including the Impulse Responses);
8.1.3 the fact that Impulse Recordings and Participant Output include and/or are generated or originate from audio recordings made at BBC Maida Vale Studios; or
8.1.4 use or display any BBC trade marks or logos.
9. Liability
9.1 Nothing in these Terms of Use excludes or limits a party’s liability for:
9.1.1 death or personal injury caused by that party’s negligence;
9.1.2 fraud or fraudulent misrepresentation;
9.1.3 wilful misconduct;
9.1.4 Participant’s acts or omissions in connection with clause 2 (Licence Grant), clause 3 (Restrictions), clause 4 (Download and Install), clause 7 (Confidentiality and FOIA Disclosure), clause 8 (Publicity), and/or the indemnity in clause 9.3; or
9.1.5 any liability which cannot be excluded under applicable law.
9.2 Subject to clause 9.1 of these Terms of Use, neither party shall be liable for any:
9.2.1 indirect or consequential losses;
9.2.2 loss of profits, revenues and/or business, anticipated savings;
9.2.3 loss of good will or reputation;
9.2.4 loss of data, projects, recordings, or content;
in each case, whether or not in the contemplation of the parties at the time of entering into these Terms of Use.
9.3 Participant shall indemnify the BBC on demand and keep indemnified the BBC and hold the BBC harmless from and against all damages, costs and expenses (including legal costs), losses and liabilities which the BBC may incur as a result of Participant’s:
9.3.1 negligence or wilful misconduct;
9.3.2 any claims or disputes raised by third parties as a result of Participant’s acts or omissions (including relating to infringement of IPR or proprietary rights supplied under or used in connection with the Agreement, comprised in or relating to the Participant Output, Improvements and/or Feedback);
9.3.3 any breach of these Terms of Use by Participant or any person acting on behalf of Participant; and
9.3.4 any product liability claim.
9.4 Subject to clause 9.1 and clause 9.2 of these Terms of Use, the BBC's total aggregate liability arising under or in connection with these Terms of Use, whether arising in contract, tort (including negligence) or restitution, or for breach of statutory duty or misrepresentation, or otherwise, shall not exceed £100.
9.5 If Participant is a consumer, Participant has legal rights in relation to digital content that is not as described or is faulty. Nothing in these Terms of Use affects those rights.
10. Termination
10.1 These Terms of Use commence on the Effective Date and continue up to and including the last day of the Hackathon, being 28 10 2026 unless terminated in accordance with these Terms of Use.
10.2 The BBC may suspend or terminate access to BBC Verb immediately:
10.2.1 for any reason;
10.2.2 if Participant breaches these Terms of Use;
10.2.3 if the BBC reasonably considers Participant's use presents legal, security or reputational risk, or Participant embarrass or causes a material adverse publicity relating to or affecting the BBC or diminishes the public trust in the BBC; or
10.2.4 if the Hackathon concludes early.
10.3 On expiry or termination of these Terms of Use, Participant will comply with its obligations in clause 3.5 of these Terms of Use.
10.4 Some provisions of these Terms of Use shall survive expiry or termination of these Terms of Use including the warranties and representations given by Participant in the recitals; clause 1 (Definitions); clause 3 (Restrictions); clause 5 (No Warranty); Clause 6 (IPR Ownership); clause 7 (Confidentiality and FOIA Disclosure); Clause 8 (Publicity); clause 9 (Liability); this clause 10.4; clause 11.9; and clause 11.11.
11. General
11.1 These Terms of Use constitute the entire agreement between the parties and supersedes and extinguishes all previous agreements, promises, assurances, warranties, representations and understandings between them, whether written or oral, relating to its subject matter.
11.2 Each party acknowledges that in entering into these Terms of Use it does not rely on, and shall have no remedies in respect of, any statement, representation, assurance or warranty (whether made innocently or negligently) that is not set out in these Terms of Use.
11.3 No amendment, discharge, modification, restatement, supplement, termination or waiver of these Terms of Use or any clause of these Terms of Use is binding unless it is in writing and executed by the parties. No failure or delay by a party to exercise any right or remedy provided under these Terms of Use or by law shall constitute a waiver of that or any other right or remedy, nor shall it prevent or restrict the further exercise of that or any other right or remedy. No single or partial exercise of such right or remedy shall prevent or restrict the further exercise of that or any other right or remedy.
11.4 Except as expressly provided in these Terms of Use, the rights and remedies provided under these Terms of Use are in addition to, and not exclusive of, any rights or remedies provided by law.
11.5 Neither party shall be in breach of these Terms of Use nor liable for delay in performing, or failure to perform, any of its obligations under these Terms of Use if such delay or failure results from events, circumstances or causes beyond its reasonable control, including strikes; lock-outs or other industrial disputes (whether involving the workforce of Participant or any other party); failure of a utility service or transport or telecommunications network or the internet; act of God; war; riot; civil commotion; malicious damage; compliance with any law or governmental order, rule, regulation or direction; accident; breakdown of plant or machinery; fire, flood, or storm; or default of suppliers or sub-contractors. In such circumstances the affected party shall be entitled to a reasonable extension of the time for performing such obligations, provided that it has notified party not affected, and if the period of delay or non- performance continues after such extension the party not affected may terminate these Terms of Use with immediate effect by giving written notice to the affected party.
11.6 If any provision or part-provision of these Terms of Use is or becomes invalid, illegal or unenforceable, it shall be deemed deleted, but that shall not affect the validity and enforceability of the rest of these Terms of Use. If any provision or part-provision of these Terms of Use is deemed deleted under this clause 11.5, the parties shall negotiate in good faith to agree a replacement provision that, to the greatest extent possible, achieves the intended result of the original provision.
11.7 The BBC shall not, without the prior written consent of Participant, assign, transfer, charge, sub-contract or deal in any other manner with all or any of its rights or obligations under these Terms of Use. Participant may not at any time assign, transfer, charge, sub-contract or deal in any other manner with all or any of its rights or obligations under these Terms of Use without the prior written consent of the BBC.
11.8 Nothing in these Terms of Use is intended to or shall operate to create a partnership between the parties, or authorise either party to act as agent for the other, and neither party shall have the authority to act in the name or on behalf of or otherwise to bind the other in any way (including, but not limited to, the making of any representation or warranty, the assumption of any obligation or liability and the exercise of any right or power).
11.9 Except as expressly provided in these Terms of Use, these Terms of Use do not confer any rights on any person or party (other than the parties to these Terms of Use and, where applicable, their successors and permitted assigns) pursuant to the Contracts (Rights of Third Parties) Act 1999.
11.10 Any notice required to be given under these Terms of Use shall be in writing and shall be delivered by hand or sent by pre-paid first-class post or recorded delivery post to the other party at its address set out in these Terms of Use, or such other address as may have been notified by that party for such purposes, or sent by fax to the other party's fax number as set out in these Terms of Use. A notice delivered by hand shall be deemed to have been received when delivered (or if delivery is not in business hours, at 9 am on the first working day following delivery). A correctly addressed notice sent by pre-paid first-class post or recorded delivery post shall be deemed to have been received at the time at which it would have been delivered in the normal course of post. A notice sent by fax shall be deemed to have been received at the time of transmission (as shown by the timed printout obtained by the sender).
11.11 These Terms of Use and any dispute or claim arising out of or in connection with it or its subject matter or formation (including non-contractual disputes or claims) shall be governed by and construed in accordance with the law of England and Wales. Each party irrevocably agrees that the courts of England and Wales shall have exclusive jurisdiction to settle any dispute or claim arising out of or in connection with these Terms of Use or its subject matter or formation (including non-contractual disputes or claims).