Copyright Policy

This Copyright Policy establishes the rules governing copyrighted material submitted to or displayed on Varsity Engine and outlines the procedures for reporting and resolving copyright disputes. It applies to all users, including athletes, parents, legal guardians, coaches, schools, athletic associations, college coaches, fans, media organizations, broadcasters, and sponsors.

This Policy uses defined terms including Copyright Owner, User Content, School Content, Association Content, Broadcast Content, Athlete Content, Licensed Content, engine-generated content, and Platform Content.

All software, source code, application programming interfaces, databases, data compilations, analytics, rankings, projections, page layouts, user-interface designs, graphics, icons, logos, trademarks, service marks, trade dress, models, algorithms, reports, and other proprietary technology are owned by Varsity Engine or its licensors and are protected by copyright, trademark, patent, trade-secret, and other intellectual property laws. The Varsity Engine name, logo, and related marks may not be used without the Company's prior written permission, and nothing on the Platform grants any license to those marks by implication or otherwise. The selection, arrangement, coordination, and presentation of data on the Platform is a protected compilation, even where individual facts (such as scores) are not themselves owned. Except for the limited right to access and use the Platform's features as intended, no right, title, or interest in the Platform or its content is transferred to you. You may not copy, modify, reverse engineer, decompile, create derivative works from, frame, mirror, or otherwise exploit the Platform or its underlying technology, and you may not remove or alter any proprietary notice. The Company reserves all rights not expressly granted, and any unauthorized use terminates the permissions granted in this Policy and may violate applicable law.

Users retain ownership of the original content they submit, including scores, statistics, photos, video, highlight clips, and profile data. By uploading content, you grant Varsity Engine a worldwide, non-exclusive, royalty-free, transferable, and sublicensable license to host, reproduce, distribute, publicly display, format, adapt, archive, and promote the content for operating, improving, and promoting the Platform, including recruiting visibility and recaps. You represent that you own or have all rights necessary to submit the content and grant this license, and that the content does not infringe any third party’s intellectual property, privacy, or publicity rights. The license is limited to Platform purposes and does not transfer ownership of your content to the Company. It survives removal of content or closure of your account only to the extent needed for backups, legal compliance, and the historical record, and the Company may remove user content that violates this Policy, the Terms of Service, or the Community Guidelines.

Schools and athletic associations retain ownership of the schedules, rosters, statistics, logos, mascots, branding, and other official materials they submit to the Platform, and grant the Company a license to host, display, and distribute that material as part of operating the Platform and its official-data features. Only authorized representatives may submit official content, and by doing so they warrant that they have the authority to act for the school or association and to grant this license, and that the material does not infringe any third party’s rights. School and association marks remain the property of their owners and are used to identify teams and events; their presence on the Platform does not imply endorsement of the Company by, or affiliation beyond the services provided to, that school or association. A school or association may request correction or removal of its official material, subject to the integrity of shared records such as scores and standings and to any retention required by law.

Athletes, parents, guardians, and coaches are responsible for ensuring they possess all necessary permissions before uploading photographs, videos, livestreams, highlight clips, audio, or other media, particularly when minors are depicted. Before uploading, you must have the right to use any music, logos, graphics, or third-party footage included in the media, and consent from every identifiable person shown, or their parent or guardian if they are under 18. Do not upload content that captures other schools' athletes, spectators, or minors without appropriate consent, or that was recorded where filming was prohibited by the venue or association. You retain ownership of media you create, and by uploading you grant Varsity Engine the license described in the User-Generated Content section. Varsity Engine may remove any media that lacks required permissions, depicts a minor without consent, or violates these terms, and repeated violations may result in loss of upload privileges or account termination. You are responsible for any claims arising from media you upload, as described in the Indemnification section.

Game recaps, rankings, summaries, statistical insights, predictions, projections, and other material produced by the Varsity Engine are proprietary works owned by Varsity Engine unless otherwise stated. This includes the compilation, arrangement, and presentation of data, as well as the models and methods used to generate it, all of which are protected by copyright and other intellectual property rights. You may view and share this content through the features the Platform provides, but you may not scrape, bulk-export, republish, resell, or create derivative works from engine-generated content without the Company's written permission. Underlying factual data, such as final scores and official statistics, is not owned by the Company as fact, but the Company's original expression, organization, and analysis of that data is. Engine-generated content is provided for informational and entertainment purposes, may contain errors, and does not constitute an endorsement or official record; the Company may correct, relabel, or remove it at any time.

Nothing in this Policy transfers ownership of an athlete's name, image, or likeness. Users grant Varsity Engine only the rights necessary to display submitted content in connection with the Platform, and, where separately authorized through the guardian consent or athlete authorization process, in promotional material and to verified college programs. For an athlete under 18, NIL rights may be authorized only by a parent or legal guardian, and are limited to the specific uses the guardian selects. Any NIL license granted is non-exclusive, revocable in writing, and does not permit the sale of a minor's personal information or the use of an athlete's NIL to endorse a third party's product or service without separate, explicit consent. The athlete or guardian may withdraw or narrow NIL permissions at any time, after which affected content is removed from recruiting and promotional visibility, subject to a reasonable processing period and to any records required by law. This section works together with the Name, Image & Likeness provisions of the Terms of Service and the Parent / Guardian Consent Agreement.

Broadcast rights remain with the applicable rights holder unless licensed to Varsity Engine. Users may not upload, restream, or rebroadcast game footage without proper authorization from the rights holder. Live streams and replays produced by student broadcasters, schools, or associations must comply with the Broadcaster Guidelines, including the approval workflow, content standards, and audio-rights rules. Varsity Engine may remove any broadcast that infringes a third party's rights, uses unlicensed music or commercial content, exposes a minor without required consent, or violates association or venue restrictions. Uploading a broadcast confirms you hold every right necessary to publish it, including any rights of the opposing school, the venue, and the individuals depicted.

Users may not copy, scrape, bulk-download, index, mirror, frame, redistribute, modify, sell, sublicense, republish, or commercially exploit Platform Content without the Company's written permission. Automated data collection tools, including bots, crawlers, scrapers, and harvesting scripts, are prohibited unless expressly authorized in writing. You may not use Platform Content to build, train, or populate a competing product, database, or model, remove or obscure any copyright, trademark, or attribution notice, or circumvent any access control, rate limit, or technical protection measure. Limited personal, non-commercial use of features the Platform makes available, such as viewing and sharing through provided tools, is permitted. The Company may throttle, suspend, or terminate access, and pursue available legal remedies, for violations of this section.

Varsity Engine complies with the DMCA. If you believe content on the Platform infringes your copyright, you or your authorized agent may submit a written notice to the Company's designated agent at [email protected]. A valid notice must include: a physical or electronic signature of the copyright owner or authorized agent; identification of the copyrighted work claimed to be infringed; identification of the material claimed to be infringing and information reasonably sufficient to locate it, such as its URL; your contact information (name, address, telephone, and email); a statement that you have a good-faith belief the use is not authorized by the copyright owner, its agent, or the law; and a statement, made under penalty of perjury, that the information in the notice is accurate and that you are the owner or authorized to act on the owner's behalf. Upon receipt of a valid notice, the Company will remove or disable access to the material and take reasonable steps to notify the user who posted it. Knowingly making a material misrepresentation in a DMCA notice may result in liability for damages under Section 512(f) of the DMCA. See Appendix A for a notice checklist.

If your material was removed or disabled due to a copyright notice and you believe the removal was a mistake or misidentification, you may submit a written counter notification to [email protected]. A valid counter notification must include: your physical or electronic signature; identification of the material that was removed and the location where it appeared before removal; a statement, under penalty of perjury, that you have a good-faith belief the material was removed as a result of mistake or misidentification; your name, address, and telephone number; and, where required, a statement that you consent to the jurisdiction of the appropriate court and will accept service of process from the party who filed the original notice. Upon receipt of a valid counter notification, the Company may forward it to the original complainant and may restore the material in 10 to 14 business days unless the complainant notifies us that they have filed a court action seeking to restrain the allegedly infringing activity. Submitting a counter notification that contains a material misrepresentation may expose you to liability under Section 512(f) of the DMCA.

Varsity Engine maintains a policy of suspending or permanently terminating, in appropriate circumstances, the accounts of users who are repeat copyright infringers. The Company tracks valid infringement notices against an account and may act after repeated violations, or sooner in the case of severe or willful infringement. A user generally becomes a repeat infringer after multiple separate, valid notices that are not successfully countered, though the Company weighs the nature, severity, and pattern of the conduct rather than a fixed count. Terminated repeat infringers may be barred from creating new accounts, and the Company may decline to reinstate accounts removed for infringement. Counter-notifications that are upheld are not counted against a user. The Company's determination of what constitutes a repeat infringer is made at its discretion and consistent with the DMCA and applicable law.

Varsity Engine may immediately remove or disable access to content that it believes, in good faith, infringes intellectual property rights, exposes a minor without required consent, or otherwise violates this Policy or applicable law, without prior notice and while any investigation is pending. This includes content flagged through the DMCA process, safety reports, or the Company's own review. Emergency removal is a precautionary measure and is not a determination of liability; affected users may be notified and, where appropriate, may use the counter-notification or review process. The Company is not liable for the temporary or permanent removal of content taken in good faith under this section.

Varsity Engine may retain copies of removed content, DMCA notices and counter-notifications, related communications, guardian consents, identity-verification records, and technical logs (such as IP addresses and timestamps) as necessary for dispute resolution, enforcement of this Policy, legal compliance, and response to valid law-enforcement or court requests. Records are kept only as long as reasonably necessary for these purposes or as required by law, and are then deleted or de-identified in accordance with the Privacy Policy. Sensitive records, including a minor's information and guardian identity documents, are stored with restricted access. The Company may preserve and disclose records where it believes in good faith that doing so is required by law, necessary to protect the safety of a user or the public, or needed to investigate suspected violations. Preservation of a record is not an admission or determination of infringement or liability.

You agree to indemnify, defend, and hold harmless Varsity Engine LLC and its officers, directors, employees, agents, and partners from and against any claims, demands, actions, damages, losses, liabilities, costs, and expenses, including reasonable attorneys' fees, arising out of or related to content you upload, your violation of another party's intellectual property, privacy, or publicity rights, your breach of this Policy or the Terms of Service, or your misuse of the Platform. This obligation applies whether the claim is brought by a copyright owner, another user, a school or association, or any third party. The Company reserves the right to assume the exclusive defense and control of any matter subject to indemnification, at your expense, and you agree to cooperate with that defense. This indemnity survives termination of your account.

To the fullest extent permitted by law, Varsity Engine is not liable for user-submitted content, for alleged infringement by third parties, or for any indirect, incidental, special, consequential, exemplary, or punitive damages arising from content, copyright disputes, or use of the Platform, including loss of data, reputation, recruiting opportunity, or profits. The Platform and its content are provided "as is" and "as available" without warranties of any kind, express or implied, including any implied warranty of non-infringement. The Company does not warrant that content is free of third-party rights or that every notice or dispute will be resolved to your satisfaction. Where liability cannot be excluded, the Company's total aggregate liability for any claim relating to this Policy is limited to the amount you paid to the Company, if any, in the twelve months preceding the claim. Some jurisdictions do not allow certain limitations, so some of these provisions may not apply to you.

This Policy applies to users in all fifty states and U.S. territories. Except where the mandatory law of your state of residence requires otherwise, this Policy is governed by and construed under the laws of the State of Mississippi, without regard to conflict-of-law principles, and copyright matters are governed by the United States Copyright Act and the DMCA. Where your state's consumer-protection or other mandatory laws provide rights that cannot be waived, nothing in this Policy limits those rights, and the remainder of this Policy continues to apply. Venue and dispute-resolution terms are addressed in the Terms of Service.

Varsity Engine may modify this Policy at any time. Continued use of the Platform after changes become effective constitutes acceptance of the revised Policy.

Copyright notices and questions may be directed to the Varsity Engine Copyright Agent at [email protected].