Terms & Conditions

Welcome to Collective Loft. These Terms & Conditions govern your access to and use of the Collective Loft platform, website, applications, services, collaboration systems, creator tools, community features, and subscription offerings (collectively, the "Platform"). By accessing or using the Platform, you agree to be bound by these Terms. If you do not agree, you may not use the Platform.

Collective Loft is not a traditional freelance marketplace, portfolio site, job board, or social media feed. The Platform exists to facilitate creative collaboration through creator identity profiles, collaboration briefs, discipline matching, Loft Studios, and structured collaboration terms.

• ○Creative Profiles and Right Now project cards
• ○Collaboration Briefs and application systems
• ○Discipline Matching systems
• ○Loft Studios: shared project workspaces
• ○Shared files, notes, and milestone tracking
• ○Community Voice ratings and reviews
• ○Messaging and communication tools
• ○Collaboration term agreements
• ○Subscription services

You must be at least 18 years old to use the Platform. Collective Loft is designed for working creative professionals. We do not permit use by individuals under 18 under any circumstances, including with parental consent. By creating an account, you represent and warrant that you are 18 years of age or older and have the full legal authority to enter into binding agreements. Your use of the Platform must comply with all applicable local, state, national, and international laws and regulations.

Collective Loft has a free membership and a paid membership, and both are full memberships. A free member has a profile, appears in Discover and Discipline Matching, may be contacted by other members, and may answer Collab Briefs, agree Collab Terms, work in a Loft Studio, receive payment for collaborations, and build a public rating from completed work. Free membership does not expire and requires no payment method.

Paid membership adds the right to start things: posting a Collab Brief, and initiating Collab Terms with another member. Student membership under Section 3.6 and any complimentary membership we grant carry the same rights as paid membership for as long as they last. When a paid membership ends for any reason, including cancellation, non-payment, refund, or the expiry of a complimentary or student period, the account becomes a free membership. It is not suspended, closed, or emptied. Collaborations already underway continue to completion with full access for both parties, and Collab Briefs already posted remain live.

This section applies only to paid membership. New paid memberships begin with a free trial of 7 days. No charge is made during the trial, and cancelling before it ends costs you nothing. When the trial ends, or immediately if you subscribe without one, you authorize our merchant of record, Paddle.com Market Ltd, to automatically charge your selected payment method on a recurring monthly basis at the then-current subscription rate. The advertised price is tax inclusive: Paddle is the seller of record for Collective Loft memberships and handles applicable sales tax, VAT, and GST out of that amount.

• ○A free trial converts to a paid monthly subscription automatically unless you cancel before it ends
• ○Subscriptions automatically renew each month unless canceled before the next billing cycle
• ○You may cancel at any time through your account settings
• ○Upon cancellation, your access continues through the end of your current paid billing period, and the account then becomes a free membership under Section 3.0 rather than being closed

You may request a full refund within 14 days of any payment, for any reason. Refunds are issued by Paddle, our merchant of record. Request one from Paddle at paddle.net, or contact us through the Help page and we will pass the request on. Once a refund is issued, the paid membership ends and the account becomes a free membership under Section 3.0.

We will provide at least 30 days advance notice of any pricing changes via email. Continued use after the effective date constitutes acceptance of new pricing.

Membership billing is handled by Paddle as merchant of record and is subject to Paddle's terms of service and privacy policy. Payments between members for collaborations are processed by Stripe through Stripe Connect and are subject to Stripe's terms. Collective Loft is not responsible for payment processing errors, disputes, or issues arising from either provider's systems.

Enrolled students receive free membership. Student membership requires signing in with an email address at a recognized educational institution, in a country whose academic domain namespace is restricted to accredited institutions, and confirming a verification code we send to that address. The list of recognized namespaces may change as we extend coverage. It lasts 12 months from each successful verification and may be renewed annually by re-verifying the same way, for as long as you remain enrolled and retain the address. If it lapses, the account becomes a free membership under Section 3.0 and may be restored at any time by verifying again. Student membership grants full platform access and requires no payment method. Misrepresenting student status, or verifying with an educational address you are not entitled to use, is grounds for termination under Section 18. We may adjust the verification method with notice, and paid collaboration payouts remain subject to Stripe Connect onboarding requirements regardless of membership type.

Collective Loft profiles are designed as creative professional identities rather than traditional résumés. You are solely responsible for all information and content submitted to your profile. You agree not to:

• ○Impersonate another individual or entity
• ○Submit false collaboration history or fabricated credentials
• ○Manipulate ratings, reviews, or trust systems
• ○Use automated bots, scripts, or fake engagement systems
• ○Create multiple accounts to circumvent platform rules or suspensions

Users may create or respond to Collaboration Briefs describing creative projects, collaborator needs, compensation arrangements, timelines, and project goals. Collective Loft does not guarantee:

• ○Project completion or successful collaboration outcomes
• ○Collaboration compatibility between users
• ○Financial outcomes or revenue generation
• ○Match quality or algorithm accuracy

Discipline Matching systems are algorithmic recommendation tools only, not endorsements, certifications, or guarantees of any kind.

A Loft Studio is a shared collaboration workspace that opens when users mutually agree to collaborate by accepting Collab Terms. Loft Studios include shared milestones, deliverable tracking, shared files, shared notes, chat history, timestamped activity records, and collaboration terms.

Users acknowledge that activity history and collaboration records may remain associated with completed projects as part of the Platform's trust and reputation infrastructure, even after a subscription is canceled or an account is closed.

Before beginning work, collaborating parties may negotiate and agree upon deliverables, timelines, rights transfer terms, revenue share percentages, milestone structures, compensation arrangements, and creative exchange terms through the Platform's Collab Terms system.

Collective Loft is not a legal representative, employer, talent agency, escrow service, or contracting party to agreements between users.

• ○Creative Exchange: skills traded between parties, no money changes hands
• ○Paid Collaboration: fee agreed upfront between parties
• ○Revenue Share: parties split revenue generated by the work

Collective Loft does not process escrow services, guarantee payment enforcement, or act as intermediary in financial transactions between users.

Creators retain full ownership of content they upload to the Platform. By uploading content, you grant Collective Loft a worldwide, non-exclusive, royalty-free license to host, display, store, and technically process your content solely as necessary to operate the Platform.

• ○Ratings and reviews must be honest, accurate, and made in good faith based on your direct collaboration experience
• ○Harassment, retaliation, defamation, or coordinated review manipulation is prohibited
• ○Collective Loft may remove reviews that violate these Terms or are fraudulent, abusive, or defamatory
• ○All moderation decisions are made at Collective Loft's sole discretion and are final

By creating an account, you consent to receive transactional emails including a welcome message, password resets, notification when someone applies to your brief, collaboration term notifications, rating prompts when a collaboration completes, billing notifications, and platform policy changes. These are service messages, not marketing. We do not send promotional email to members who have not asked for it.

• ○Harass, threaten, intimidate, or abuse other users
• ○Upload illegal, infringing, stolen, or unauthorized content
• ○Share malware, malicious code, or harmful content
• ○Attempt unauthorized access to any system, account, or data
• ○Scrape, crawl, or systematically harvest Platform data
• ○Manipulate matching, rating, or reputation systems
• ○Circumvent subscription fees or access controls
• ○Use the Platform for any unlawful purpose
• ○Impersonate Collective Loft staff or representatives

All Platform branding, logos, systems, interfaces, software, workflows, visual design, matching systems, and proprietary technology are owned by Collective Loft and Morgan Collective Group LLC.

Submit DMCA takedown notices to hello@collectiveloft.com including: identification of the copyrighted work, identification of the infringing material and its location, your contact information, a good faith statement, and a statement under penalty of perjury that you are authorized to act on behalf of the copyright owner.

Your use of the Platform is governed by our Privacy Policy, available at collectiveloft.com/legal/privacy and linked from the footer of the Platform and from the Help page.

Collective Loft will never sell, rent, trade, or license your personal data to any third party, and will never use your personal data to serve third-party advertising. This commitment is a binding term of the agreement between you and Collective Loft, not a statement of current practice or marketing intent. It applies to all personal data we hold about you, including your profile, portfolio, messages, collaboration history, and usage activity. Sharing data with the service providers who operate the Platform on our behalf, listed in the Privacy Policy and bound by contracts that prohibit them from using your data for their own purposes, is not a sale and is the only sharing we do.

If Collective Loft permanently ceases operation, we will notify all members by email at least 30 days before shutdown, provide a way to export your own profile and portfolio content during that period, and permanently delete all member personal data within 90 days of shutdown. The only records retained past that point are those the law requires us to keep, such as billing records, and those are retained only for their legally required period and used for no other purpose.

If Collective Loft is acquired, merged, or its assets are sold, member personal data may transfer only to a successor that agrees in writing to be bound by this Section 15 in full. We will notify all members by email at least 30 days before any such transfer takes effect, and during that period you may close your account and have your personal data deleted before it transfers. Member personal data will never be sold or transferred as a standalone asset separate from the operation of the Platform.

THE PLATFORM IS PROVIDED "AS IS" AND "AS AVAILABLE" WITHOUT WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND.

TO THE MAXIMUM EXTENT PERMITTED BY APPLICABLE LAW, COLLECTIVE LOFT AND MORGAN COLLECTIVE GROUP LLC SHALL NOT BE LIABLE FOR ANY INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL, CONSEQUENTIAL, PUNITIVE, OR SPECIAL DAMAGES.

Collective Loft may suspend or terminate accounts at its sole discretion. Users may terminate at any time. Access continues through the end of the current paid billing period.

These Terms are governed by the laws of the State of Illinois. Disputes not subject to arbitration shall be resolved in courts located in Chicago, Illinois.

Collective Loft and Morgan Collective Group LLC are not parties to agreements between users. All collaborations, payments, rights transfers, and business arrangements are solely between participating users.

By using the Platform, you agree that any dispute arising out of or relating to these Terms shall be resolved through binding individual arbitration in Chicago, Illinois under AAA rules.

YOU WAIVE ANY RIGHT TO PARTICIPATE IN CLASS ACTIONS, CLASS ARBITRATIONS, OR REPRESENTATIVE PROCEEDINGS AGAINST COLLECTIVE LOFT OR MORGAN COLLECTIVE GROUP LLC.

Profile completion indicators, collaboration history counts, Community Voice ratings, and trust signals are informational only, not endorsements, certifications, or background checks of any kind.

Rights related to collaborative works are determined solely by agreements between participating users.

We will notify registered users by email at least 14 days before material changes take effect. Changes that reduce the protections in Section 15 (Privacy & Data) require at least 30 days advance email notice and do not apply retroactively to data collected before the change takes effect.