STAGE ZERO - Terms of Service

These Terms of Service govern your use of the STAGE ZERO platform “STAGE ZERO”, “we”, “our”, or “the Platform”. By accessing or using the Platform, you agree to these Terms.

STAGE ZERO is a UK-based creative platform for independent film, television, and media projects. The Platform is designed to help users discover creative projects, build teams, find collaborators, discuss ideas, and support approved Projects through non-investment crowdfunding where available.

Users on STAGE ZERO may include:

• Project Posters - users who post film, television, or media Projects to seek collaboration, team members, audience interest, or crowdfunding support.
• Crew and Collaborators - users such as camera operators, editors, actors, writers, lighting crew, designers, producers, or other creative professionals who may apply to, join, or be recruited for Projects.
• Supporters - users who contribute through crowdfunding to approved Projects without expecting any financial return.
• General Users - users who browse, follow, or engage with Projects, Project Posters, crew, or Platform content.

STAGE ZERO helps users bring attention to early-stage film, television, and media concepts by combining Project discovery, networking, collaboration tools, Project forums where available, and non-investment crowdfunding.

• STAGE ZERO is not an investment platform, securities platform, lending platform, or regulated financial investment service.
• STAGE ZERO does not offer equity, repayment rights, profit share, revenue share, royalties, securities, ownership, or any other financial return to Supporters.
• STAGE ZERO is not a film distributor, publisher, broadcaster, streaming service, digital-content marketplace, pay-per-view platform, download store, or creator-content monetisation platform.
• STAGE ZERO does not sell, license, monetise, or commercially exploit completed films, television programmes, videos, digital content, or third-party media content on behalf of users.
• Project materials uploaded by users are used for Project discovery, promotion, collaboration, crowdfunding information, and Platform functionality only.

A “Project” means a film, television, or media idea, concept, pitch, or proposal posted by a user on STAGE ZERO to seek help bringing that concept closer to production.

A Project may be posted to seek financial support through non-investment crowdfunding, collaboration from other users, crew members, production help, feedback, audience interest, or a combination of these.

Projects may include pitch materials, descriptions, images, video links, scripts or script excerpts, budgets, funding goals, team requirements, production plans, updates, and non-financial supporter acknowledgements.

A Project is not a published film, completed media work, streaming upload, distribution listing, content sale, pay-per-view product, download, or monetised media item. STAGE ZERO Projects are used for Project development, collaboration, audience support, and crowdfunding information only.

Users may not use Projects to publish, distribute, sell, license, stream, broadcast, monetise, or commercially exploit their own completed media content or third-party media content through STAGE ZERO.

Where a Project seeks crowdfunding support, additional rules apply under our Payments and Crowdfunding Policy.

• A Project is not an investment opportunity, security, loan, profit-sharing arrangement, revenue-sharing arrangement, royalty arrangement, or financial-return product.
• Posting or approving a Project does not guarantee that the Project will be completed, released, distributed, or commercially successful.
• The user who posts a Project is responsible for ensuring that the Project information is accurate, lawful, non-misleading, and does not infringe third-party rights.
• STAGE ZERO may request evidence of rights, licences, permissions, or ownership where a Project appears to use third-party intellectual property.
• STAGE ZERO may review, approve, reject, suspend, or remove Projects in accordance with these Terms, our Acceptable Use Policy, our Payments and Crowdfunding Policy, and payment-provider requirements.

• You must be at least 18 years old to receive payments, subscribe to paid platform services, post payment-enabled Projects, or crowdfund through the Platform.
• You must agree to these Terms, our Privacy Policy, Acceptable Use Policy, Payments and Crowdfunding Policy, Refund Policy, and any applicable payment terms.
• You must not be barred from using the Platform under applicable law or payment-provider rules.
• We may require additional identity, business, payment, location, sanctions, intellectual-property, or Project information before enabling payment features.

• You must create an account to use most Platform features.
• You are responsible for maintaining the confidentiality and security of your account.
• You must provide accurate and up-to-date account, profile, Project, collaboration, location, and payment information.
• You may not impersonate another person, organisation, Project, production team, or creative role.
• You may delete your account at any time.

• We may request additional information about a user, Project, budget, team, production plan, intended use of funds, Project location, ownership rights, intellectual-property permissions, or Project risk before enabling payments.
• We may reject, suspend, or remove Projects that appear misleading, unlawful, fraudulent, high-risk, infringing, sanctions-related, or inconsistent with our Platform rules.
• We may limit crowdfunding access to reviewed users and Projects, especially during our launch phase.
• Approval of a Project by STAGE ZERO does not guarantee the quality, success, delivery, release, completion, or commercial performance of that Project.

STAGE ZERO does not permit Projects, transactions, contributions, accounts, payouts, or support involving prohibited jurisdictions, sanctioned regions, sanctioned persons, restricted persons, illegal activity, sanctions evasion, money laundering, or payment-provider rule violations.

• STAGE ZERO does not permit transactions involving Stripe-prohibited jurisdictions, including Cuba, Iran, North Korea, Syria, and the Crimea, Donetsk, and Luhansk regions, or any other jurisdiction, person, entity, or activity prohibited by Stripe, sanctions authorities, payment providers, or applicable law.
• Users must not attempt to bypass country, sanctions, identity, payout, or payment-provider restrictions through false information, nominee accounts, intermediaries, VPNs, or any other means.
• STAGE ZERO may reject, suspend, remove, refund, delay, block, or review Projects, contributions, accounts, or payouts that appear to involve prohibited jurisdictions, sanctioned regions, sanctioned persons, restricted activity, illegal activity, or payment-provider rule violations.

You must not:

• Misrepresent your identity, experience, credentials, or role.
• Upload, share, or promote content that is unlawful, hateful, harassing, sexually exploitative, fraudulent, or infringes intellectual property rights.
• Use Projects to publish, distribute, sell, license, stream, broadcast, monetise, or commercially exploit completed media content, whether owned by you or by a third party.
• Raise funds for Projects that rely on unauthorised use of third-party scripts, characters, brands, footage, music, images, artwork, trademarks, copyrighted works, or other protected material.
• Use the Platform for fraud, deception, harassment, money laundering, sanctions evasion, or any illegal activity.
• Circumvent Platform payment features, including by taking transactions off-platform to avoid fees, review, payment controls, or compliance checks.
• Offer investment returns, profit share, revenue share, repayment, royalties, securities, ownership, or other financial benefits to Supporters.
• Use the Platform in a way that violates any applicable payment-provider rules, restricted-business requirements, sanctions requirements, or legal obligations.

Additional payment, crowdfunding, payout, refund, and dispute terms are set out in our Payments and Crowdfunding Policy and Refund Policy, which form part of these Terms where applicable.

• Supporter contributions, platform subscriptions, platform fees, and other payments are processed through approved third-party payment providers, including Stripe where available and approved.
• STAGE ZERO charges a 5% platform fee on crowdfunding contributions made to approved Project proposals. The fee will be shown clearly before checkout.
• STAGE ZERO may charge subscription fees or service fees for platform features, which will be shown clearly before payment.
• Platform subscriptions are paid by users to STAGE ZERO for platform features such as profile visibility, Project visibility, promotional tools, discovery boosts, or other platform services. They are not subscriptions paid by one user to another user.
• Crowdfunding on STAGE ZERO is non-investment based. Supporters do not receive equity, repayment rights, profit share, revenue share, royalties, securities, ownership, or any other financial return.
• Crowdfunding contributions do not guarantee that a Project will be completed, released, delivered by a specific date, meet a Supporter’s expectations, achieve a particular level of quality, or result in any particular outcome.
• Supporter contributions are intended to help approved Project Posters fund production-related costs, such as short film development, production, post-production, equipment, locations, cast, crew, or related Project expenses.
• STAGE ZERO may set minimum and maximum contribution amounts, per-supporter limits, campaign funding goals, campaign caps, and other payment limits to manage fraud, chargeback risk, compliance obligations, and Platform safety.
• STAGE ZERO may reject, pause, refund, or review contributions that appear unusually large, repeated, suspicious, inconsistent with the stated Project purpose, sanctions-related, IP-infringing, or otherwise high-risk.
• Payouts may be subject to identity verification, payment-provider checks, Project review, fraud monitoring, chargeback risk, refund obligations, contribution limits, campaign caps, sanctions controls, intellectual-property review, and any reserve, delay, or restriction required by the payment provider.
• STAGE ZERO may delay, pause, restrict, or cancel payouts where required to investigate suspected fraud, policy violations, disputes, legal concerns, compliance issues, sanctions concerns, intellectual-property concerns, contribution-limit issues, campaign-cap issues, or payment-provider requirements.

• Creative Projects involve uncertainty, and contributions do not guarantee that a Project will be completed, released, delivered by a specific date, meet a Supporter’s expectations, or achieve any particular outcome.
• Refund eligibility may depend on the Project terms, the stage of the Project, whether funds have already been paid out or committed to production costs, payment-provider rules, and applicable consumer law.
• STAGE ZERO may review refund requests where there is evidence of a duplicate payment, unauthorised payment, technical error, fraud, misleading Project information, contribution-limit issues, campaign-cap issues, prohibited-jurisdiction issues, sanctions issues, intellectual-property issues, or a user’s failure to comply with Platform rules.
• Supporters may contact STAGE ZERO or the Project Poster about refund or dispute concerns.
• Payment disputes and chargebacks may be handled by the applicable payment provider according to its rules and processes.

• You retain rights to content and Project materials you upload.
• You must only upload, link to, or use content and Project materials that you own, created, are licensed to use, or otherwise have permission to use.
• You grant STAGE ZERO a limited, worldwide, non-exclusive licence to host, display, reproduce, and promote your uploaded profile and Project materials solely for Platform-related purposes, including Project discovery, collaboration, crowdfunding information, and Platform promotion.
• This licence does not allow STAGE ZERO to sell, license, distribute, stream, broadcast, monetise, or commercially exploit completed media content on your behalf.
• STAGE ZERO may request evidence of rights, licences, permissions, or ownership where a Project appears to use third-party intellectual property.
• STAGE ZERO may remove, suspend, or pause payments for content or Projects that appear to infringe intellectual property rights or where the relevant user cannot reasonably show permission to use relevant materials.

• We may suspend or terminate your account if you violate these Terms, our Acceptable Use Policy, payment-provider rules, or applicable law.
• We may remove or suspend Projects that appear fraudulent, misleading, unlawful, high-risk, sanctions-related, IP-infringing, or non-compliant.
• You may delete your account at any time.

• We do not guarantee the success, quality, completion, delivery, release, distribution, or commercial performance of any Project.
• We are not responsible for private agreements between Project Posters, Supporters, crew, collaborators, or other users unless expressly stated in writing.
• We do not provide financial, investment, legal, tax, production, intellectual-property, or professional advice.
• Use of the Platform is at your own risk.

These Terms are governed by the laws of England and Wales.

For questions, legal notices, or infringement reports, contact:
Email: hello@stagezerocreative.com
Company: STAGE ZERO CREATIVE LTD
Company Reg. No.: 16515106