RSS.COM “PAID” PROGRAM TERMS
Welcome to RSS.com’s “PAID” Program Terms!
BY PARTICIPATING IN THE PAID PROGRAM, YOU AFFIRM THAT YOU ARE AT LEAST 18 YEARS OLD.
OVERVIEW
Please read these PAID Program Terms (“PAID Terms”) carefully before participating in the PAID Program (as defined below) offered through our Site. For the avoidance of doubt, this is a binding agreement between RSS America, LLC (“RSS America, LLC,” “RSS America,” “us”, “we”, or “our”) and you, and is subject to the Terms of Service (located at https://rss.com/terms-of-service). Any capitalized terms used herein but not otherwise defined, shall have the same meaning set forth in the Terms of Service. These PAID Terms are part of and expressly incorporated into the Agreement.
“Ads” means a commercial message (in any format), inserted into any Publication by the PAID Program.
“Advertiser” means the person or entity paying for Ads in any Publication, which may include third parties or RSS America.
“Advertising Partner” means a third party engaged by RSS America for (i) selling, serving or producing Ads in a Publication; (ii) distribution of Publications on such third party’s platform; (iii) providing advertising technology (such as e.g. measurement and targeting), research, podcast data and/or (iv) providing other services for the purpose of increasing discoverability of Publication and/or sales of Ads in a Publication.
“Advertising Rate” means the price at which an Ad is sold.
“Net Advertising Revenue” means the amount actually received by RSS America for sold Ads, less applicable taxes and any Third-Party Fees.
“PAID Program” is a program offered by RSS America that allows podcasters with a qualifying Account on the Site to monetize their podcasts. The program works by attempting to automatically insert programmatic advertisements into their podcast episodes (in audio and/or video format), which are delivered via public RSS feeds, on-site or embeddable media players, and/or other distribution channels to multiple platforms and directories, such as Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and other third party services. The program includes access to RSS America’s backend systems and technology, including, but not limited to, all software, servers, and tools used to host, distribute, and deliver the podcaster’s content from RSS America’s infrastructure. This enables the podcast episodes, along with the inserted advertisements, to be made available to listeners and viewers through the Site, third-party media players and podcast platforms.
“Publication” means (i) any and all Content (including, but not limited to all audio and/or video content and bonus material) associated with the podcast show or episode hosted, distributed and/or monetized by RSS America under the terms of the Agreement; (ii) any and all elements included and/or related to the RSS feed, on-site or embeddable media players, or other distribution channels used to distribute the podcast audio and/or video files or the content described in (i) and (iii); (iii) any and all related Ads.
“Roll Slot” means a break in an episode of the Publication where an Ad may be inserted (which may include, pre-roll slots, mid-roll slots, and post-roll slots).
“Standard Ad Inventory” means the minimum number of Ads and Roll Slots in each episode of the Publication, subject to Roll Slot availability and functions as determined by RSS America or as otherwise agreed by the Parties.
THE PROGRAM
THE PAID PROGRAM IS NOT FOR PERSONS UNDER THE AGE OF 18 OR FOR ANY USERS PREVIOUSLY REMOVED FROM THE SITE BY US. IF YOU ARE UNDER 18 YEARS OF AGE, THEN YOU MUST NOT USE OR ACCESS THE PAID PROGRAM AT ANY TIME OR IN ANY MANNER.
RSS America will make available the PAID Program, as well as all associated information and content therein, as set out in these PAID Terms. RSS America shall use commercially reasonable efforts to make the PAID Program available, except for scheduled and unscheduled maintenance. Notwithstanding anything to the contrary in these PAID Terms, RSS America shall have the right to temporarily or permanently discontinue any or all aspects of any feature or product provided under these PAID Terms, at any time upon written notice to podcaster.
Participation in the Program is subject to you having a qualifying Account and verifying a valid PayPal account (PayPal account creation is made available through https://paypal.com). Upon verification of your PayPal address, if you have a qualifying Account then you will be granted access to the PAID Program.
OWNERSHIP AND RIGHTS
RSS America is and remains the sole owners of all rights in RSS America’s intellectual property. RSS America hereby grants to you a non-exclusive, non-transferable, non-sublicensable, revocable worldwide license for the duration of these PAID Terms to use and participate in the Program in accordance with the Agreement. RSS America reserves any and all rights not expressly granted to you. These PAID Terms do not confer upon you any right to, or in respect of, the PAID Program or to any technology, software, information or material being part of such services. RSS America expressly reserves all intellectual property rights not expressly granted to you hereunder.
As between you and RSS America, all your Content is owned by you or validly licensed by you.
Unless otherwise expressly agreed by you and RSS America, we do not claim any ownership rights to nor any responsibility over your Content. You acknowledge and agree that your Content remains solely your responsibility.
By accepting these PAID Terms and participating in the PAID Program, you hereby grant to RSS America a non-exclusive, sub-licensable, fully paid, royalty-free, worldwide license to host, use, copy, digitally transcode, transcribe, transmit, modify, publicly perform, display publicly, communicate to the public on a pre-programmed and on-demand basis, promote, market, distribute, make use of your Content to monetize (subject to Section 4 Commercials), and otherwise make your Content available to end users and third parties including via download and streaming during the term of your agreement with RSS America. In addition, you acknowledge that the foregoing licenses in this Section will extend to the end users of RSS America’s websites and applications, and to operators and users of any other websites, apps and/or platforms to which your Content has been shared, distributed or embedded by RSS America or its Advertising Partners including, but not limited to, third party platforms and/or services where Publications and related content are made available.
With respect to the automatic insertion of Roll Slots in the Publication, you hereby waive all rights to object to derogatory treatment of the Publication to which you may now or at any future time be entitled to under copyright law in force anywhere in the world from time to time. Without limiting the generality of the foregoing, you may have an option within the PAID Program dashboard to exclude some types of advertising categories based on the official IAB ad category list.
These PAID Terms and the inclusion of Ads in your Content under the Program do not constitute a transfer or assignment of any rights. You acknowledge and agree that you do not acquire any rights, title, or other interests in the Ads, which remain the property of the Advertiser or the entity on whose behalf the Advertiser provided them. You are granted a limited license to incorporate the Ads into your Content solely as described in these Terms.
COMMERCIALS
You agree that:
RSS America has the non-exclusive right to host, distribute and monetize the Publication.
RSS America’s failure to secure any Ad for your Publication or a specific number of impressions shall not constitute a breach of this Agreement.
You shall allow RSS America to (i) use and fill the Standard Ad Inventory with Ads as available into the Publication.
RSS America and you agree to share Net Advertising Revenue from any Ads placed on any Publication as follows: RSS America 30% / you 70%, unless otherwise agreed to by RSS America in writing (e-mail with an authorized representative of RSS America is sufficient). Notwithstanding anything to the contrary herein, any third-party fees incurred or otherwise borne by RSS America in connection with the receipt or payment of your Net Advertising Revenue (i.e., PayPal transaction or processing fees as set forth at https://www.paypal.com/us/business/paypal-business-fees) (collectively, “Third-Party Fees”) shall be deducted from your share of Net Advertising Revenue. RSS America makes no representation or warranty that any Ads and/or exploitation of rights granted hereunder will generate any particular amount of Net Advertising Revenue. For the avoidance of doubt, the revenue share described in this Section applies solely to Net Advertising Revenue attributable to Ads served on or after the date and time you successfully complete verification of your PayPal account, and you have no right to any revenue generated from Ads served in or in connection with your Content or any Publication before that time, all of which is and remains the sole and exclusive property of RSS America.
Payment for the share of Net Advertising Revenue will be provided via PayPal, and subject to PayPal’s terms and conditions, and Third-Party Fees. You represent and warrant that by virtue of you agreeing to these PAID Terms, you are authorized to act on behalf of the Content provider and you will maintain a functional PayPal account for receiving funds. Balances accrue daily and are payable 60 days after being earned, subject to invalid traffic, fraud and abuse verification, as well as transaction fee adjustments and other accounting reconciliations. For the avoidance of doubt Third-Party Fees are determined by the applicable third party, and will be deducted from your current or future pay-out balance of your share of the Net Advertising Revenue.
RSS America reserves the right to withhold payments to you under these PAID Terms if the minimum share of Net Advertising Revenue to qualify for payments (as published in your account dashboard or our help center, as updated from time to time) is not met.
RSS America will use reasonable efforts to ensure that any Ads sold by Advertising Partners or networks or other third parties comply with the terms of this Agreement. For the sake of clarity, RSS America has the right, at its sole discretion, to remove any Ads from a Publication if RSS America assesses that an Ad may violate these Terms or any applicable law or for any other reason may harm RSS America’s business.
RSS America shall have the right to sell Ads and contract with its respective Advertisers in accordance with standard rates determined in the selling party’s business judgment. RSS America or its vendors may monitor Ad performance for invalidity, fraud and abuse, and if it detects any invalidity, fraud or abuse, or other similar bad acts intended to alter engagement metrics and associated revenue, it shall have the right to reduce the revenue received related thereto, and to terminate participation in the PAID Program or the Site for the affected Account.
Any unsold Standard Ad Inventory in a Publication may be used by RSS America for advertising and promoting you, RSS America, any other content hosted by RSS America, or any other products or services, provided that you will still be compensated based on value paid or payable for the placement, subject to these PAID Terms.
You are fully responsible for reporting and paying all taxes and related fees related to any payment due to or received by you under this Agreement and you shall fully indemnify RSS America for any claims related thereto.
RSS America may engage third parties for production, advertising technology (such as e.g. measurement and targeting), research, podcast data and/or other services that aim to increase revenues. Any amounts received by RSS America as a result of such engagements shall not be included in the Net Advertising Revenue.
RSS America is granted a right to use Ads for the purpose of demonstrating RSS America's products and services for podcast creators and Advertisers.
RSS America reserves the right to suspend monetization of a Publication and withhold any accrued payments due, if RSS America or any third party engaged by RSS America determines that: (i) the provided PayPal account information, and information associated therewith, including bank account information, is inaccurate, incomplete, or insufficient to process payments; (ii) the identity of the individual or entity associated with the PayPal or bank account cannot be accurately verified; or (iii) the recipient is unable to receive payment due to legal, regulatory, or compliance restrictions. RSS America or any third party engaged by RSS America shall not be liable for any losses or damages resulting from such suspension or withholding of payments. Monetization and payment processing may resume once the identified issues are resolved to RSS America's satisfaction.
TERM AND TERMINATION
Should you decide to turn-off or terminate your participation in the PAID Program, you may not access or benefit from the PAID Program. You may delete your Account in order to terminate your use of the PAID Program at any time and for any reason. In such case, your rights and obligations under the PAID Terms will also terminate except for any obligations of yours that have arisen as a consequence of your use of the Program before the deletion of your account. Your non-compliance with the PAID Terms and/or Terms of Service may result in: (i) the suspension of your access to the Site and/or the PAID Program; and/or (ii) the permanent removal of your Content from the Platform; and/or (iii) the termination of your Account and your right to use the Site and/or PAID Program.
If you subscribe to an Ad-Supported Plan (as defined in the Terms of Service), termination of your participation in the PAID Program will not disable, remove, or suspend Ads in your video Content, which continue to be governed by the Terms of Service; termination ends only your right to share in Net Advertising Revenue, effective as of the date and time of termination, and all revenue from Ads served after such time is and remains the sole and exclusive property of RSS America. Any accrued and unpaid balance of your share of Net Advertising Revenue as of termination will be paid in accordance with the payment provisions of these PAID Terms, subject to the withholding, verification, and minimum-payment provisions herein.
In addition, if RSS America determines that you have breached the PAID Terms, or that Publication engagement with respect to your Content or the PAID Program has been subject to any actions that artificially or in bad faith have altered the streaming or download numbers, regardless of your intent, or is subject to any copyright infringement, inclusion of sensitive content, or otherwise is non-compliant with the terms of the Agreement, RSS America may suspend monetization and withhold accrued payments and/or reduce future amounts due to you hereunder. For the avoidance of doubt, if termination is effected for any reason outlined in this Section 5, any subscription fees already paid to RSS America will not be refunded. By using the PAID Program, You accept that RSS America may, at any time and at its own discretion, close the PAID Program or parts of the PAID Program.
CHANGES TO THE PAID PROGRAM AND/OR THE PAID TERMS
We reserve the right, at our sole discretion, to modify or replace these PAID Terms by posting the updated terms on the Site or Program dashboard. Such modifications or changed terms or conditions shall be effective immediately. Your continued use of the Site or participation in the PAID Program after any such changes constitutes your acceptance of the new PAID Terms.
Please review these PAID Terms periodically for changes. IF YOU DO NOT AGREE TO ANY OF THESE PAID TERMS OR ANY CHANGES TO THESE PAID TERMS, DO NOT USE, ACCESS OR CONTINUE TO ACCESS THE PAID PROGRAM OR DISCONTINUE ANY PARTICIPATION IN THE PAID PROGRAM IMMEDIATELY. YOUR CONTINUED USE OF THE PAID PROGRAM CONSTITUTES YOUR ACKNOWLEDGEMENT THAT YOU HAVE READ THESE PAID TERMS, UNDERSTAND THE PAID TERMS, AND WILL BE BOUND BY THESE PAID TERMS. THESE TERMS TOGETHER WITH THE TERMS OF SERVICE AND THE PRIVACY POLICY (LOCATED, RESPECTIVELY, AT: https://rss.com/terms-of-service/ and https://rss.com/privacy-policy/) REPRESENT THE COMPLETE AND EXCLUSIVE STATEMENT OF THE AGREEMENT BETWEEN US AND IT SUPERSEDES ANY PROPOSAL OR PRIOR AGREEMENT ORAL OR WRITTEN, AND ANY OTHER COMMUNICATIONS BETWEEN US RELATING TO THE SUBJECT MATTER OF THESE PAID TERMS.
SUPPORT
If you have any comments, complaints, suggestions, or questions about the Paid Program or the Site, or would otherwise like to contact us, then please contact us at support@rss.com.