Commissioning UGC for your app or brand: usage grids, whitelisting and AI edits

User-generated content, the testimonial-style videos creators make for brands to run as their own, is now a standard line in app and consumer marketing budgets. Most UGC disputes aren’t about the videos. They’re about where the brand ran them, for how long, and what it changed.

This post is general information, not legal advice.

What you’re actually buying

A brand commissioning UGC buys two things: the creator’s work (filming, editing, delivering files) and permission to use the result. A freelance creator isn’t your employee, so the Copyright Act rule that an employer owns work made in the course of employment usually won’t help. The creator starts as the copyright owner, and under section 13(4), an assignment, or a licence granting an interest in the copyright, is only valid if it’s in writing and signed by the owner or their authorized agent.

For apps and SaaS companies, UGC travels: from a TikTok ad to App Store previews, onboarding screens, landing pages and sales emails. If a use isn’t in the contract, assume you’ll need to ask for it later.

Licence or assignment

• Assignment. The brand becomes the owner. Useful if you’ll cut footage into your product or reuse it for years. Expect to pay more.
• Exclusive licence. The creator keeps ownership, but only you can use the content in the agreed channels and term.
• Non-exclusive licence. Cheapest. You get defined rights, and the creator can reuse the content, often for a portfolio.

Moral rights are separate. Section 14.1 says they can’t be assigned, only waived, and an assignment of copyright doesn’t by itself waive them. If you plan to cut, remix or alter the content, get a waiver that covers the edits you intend.

Use a usage grid

Write usage as a short table rather than a paragraph:

• Channels: brand social accounts, paid social, website, app store listings, email, connected TV.
• Term: paid usage is often a set number of months; organic posts may stay up.
• Territory: Canada, North America or worldwide.
• Exclusivity: whether the creator can make similar content for competitors, for how long, and how “competitor” is defined.
• Expiry: what comes down when the term ends, and how quickly.

Add option prices for extra months or territories. If an ad is still converting well at the end of the term and you want to launch it in the US, an option clause avoids a fresh negotiation in which the creator holds the leverage. See usage rights.

Whitelisting is a separate right

Whitelisting, also called allowlisting, means running ads through the creator’s own account, such as Meta’s partnership ads or TikTok’s Spark Ads. At that point you’re borrowing the creator’s identity, not just their footage. The contract should cover:

• how long you have access, and how either side ends it;
• whether the creator approves ad copy written in their voice;
• whether you can change captions, add claims or choose targeting;
• a separate fee.

Platform permissions can be revoked with a click. The contract decides what happens when they are: notice periods, refunds of unearned fees, and whether booked media can finish running.

AI edits

Brands now use generative tools to resize, translate, dub, generate variations or swap backgrounds. Some go further and synthesize a creator’s voice or face to deliver new scripts. Each step raises different issues.

Integrity. Heavy alteration can engage the creator’s moral right of integrity. List permitted edits (cropping, subtitles, colour correction, translation with approval) and prohibited ones.

Voice and likeness. Making a creator appear to say something they never said is a personality issue as well as a copyright one. Ontario courts recognize a claim for misappropriation of personality, and several provinces, including British Columbia, have privacy statutes covering unauthorized use of a person’s name or likeness. Treat synthetic voice or likeness, and use of footage to train AI, as separate rights with separate consent and payment.

Advertising rules. Ad Standards’ October 2025 guidelines say AI-generated or significantly altered images showing a product’s benefits should be disclosed, and that filters and AI mustn’t make results misleading. An AI-polished demo of your app’s results can mislead even if every frame started as real footage.

Disclosure and testimonials

When UGC runs from your brand account as an obvious ad, you’re the advertiser. When it appears as a creator’s post or a whitelisted ad, viewers may read it as an independent opinion, so the creator’s material connection has to be clear. The Competition Bureau has said businesses share responsibility with influencers for social media ads.

Testimonial-style UGC is the riskiest format. A script saying “I’ve used this app every day for months,” read by a creator who downloaded it yesterday, is a problem. Require that the creator actually use the product before filming, supply evidence for any performance claim you script, and set the disclosure wording for each platform.

A UGC contract checklist

• Licence or assignment, in writing and signed.
• A moral rights waiver matched to your planned edits.
• A usage grid with option prices.
• Whitelisting as a separate right with a fee and end date.
• Permitted and prohibited edits, including AI.
• No synthetic voice or likeness without separate consent.
• Disclosure wording and real product use.

We draft brand deal contracts and content licensing agreements at fixed fees, listed on our fees page. If you’re commissioning creator content, book a free 15-minute consult.