Stop each use of a creator asset when its permission ends for that placement, unless an agreed extension covers it. Record the permitted use, start event, end time and every live placement before publishing. Then assign someone to stop or remove each use. Deleting the master file does not verify that an uploaded ad, website copy or scheduled post has disappeared.
Decide what the expiry date ends
An approved video can have several permissions with different deadlines. Creative approval confirms that a version is acceptable for the agreed work. Your register must also show where, how and for how long you may use it.
UK government copyright guidance explains that a licence can limit purposes, time and places. It also says a different use outside a limited licence needs another licence. Those are UK rights concepts. Have a qualified adviser resolve unclear terms under the agreement's governing law and any other relevant jurisdictions.
Read the agreement for these distinctions before entering an expiry date:
- Does the period start at signing, delivery, approval, first publication or first paid use?
- Does expiry require removal of existing brand posts, or only prohibit new publication and promotion?
- Do paid ads, organic reposts and website placements share a term?
- Does the agreement permit an archive, and under what access restrictions?
- Does an extension require written acceptance, payment or another condition before it takes effect?
Record unresolved terms as unresolved. Do not turn an empty expiry field into unlimited permission. If a deadline is unclear, escalate it before launch; for an existing use, ask the rights owner and your adviser how to proceed.
The Modash usage-rights article recommends specifying distribution, modification rights and duration, including when the duration starts. Use those questions to extract terms from your agreement. Its suggested commercial terms are recommendations, not rules that govern your campaign.
For gaps that need negotiation, use the creator contract discussion checklist before promising continued use.
Build a rights register linked to a placement list
A spreadsheet can hold this record. Use one rights row per asset version and distinct permission. Link each row to the places that use it. Separate rows matter when a video has a short paid-ad term and a longer website term.
Rights row
| Field | What to record |
|---|---|
| Asset and version | Stable asset ID, creator, approved filename and derivative IDs |
| Agreement evidence | Signed agreement or accepted amendment, version and relevant clause |
| Permitted use | Named channels, organic or paid use, territory and permitted edits |
| Start condition | The contractual trigger and evidence that it occurred |
| End condition | Exact date, time and time zone, plus any earlier termination condition |
| End-of-term action | Remove, stop promotion, stop new use, or another agreed action |
| Platform permission | Relevant authorization method and its separate end date |
| Renewal decision | Owner, decision deadline, approval evidence and effective date |
| Status | Unresolved, active, ending, removal in progress, or closed |
Keep the original terms alongside any calculated date. If the agreement says a number of months after first use, retain the first-use evidence. Have the parties clarify ambiguous calendar arithmetic or time zones rather than letting a spreadsheet decide the contract.
Placement row
For every use, record the rights-row ID, exact version, destination URL or platform object ID, account, placement owner and required action. Add the action deadline, completion time, verification evidence and any unresolved exception.
Include placements outside the influencer team's accounts. Ask paid media, ecommerce, email, social and agency partners to identify their copies. Track crops, still frames, translated versions and compilations against the source asset so a renamed export stays findable.
The distinction between an asset and its publications also matters for reporting. Use the asset-and-publication counting guide if teams keep treating every upload as a new piece of content.
Example: one video with two deadlines
The following terms and dates are hypothetical. They illustrate recordkeeping, not a recommended licence length. Assume the agreement expressly requires removal from the listed brand placements when each permission ends.
| Record | Hypothetical permission | End time | Required action |
|---|---|---|---|
| Asset C41, paid use | Approved video in named TikTok ads | 31 October 2026, 23:59 UTC | Stop every covered ad by the deadline |
| Asset C41, website use | Approved video on one product page | 30 November 2026, 23:59 UTC | Remove the video from that page |
| Placement AD-A | Paid use of C41 in the brand account | Paid-use deadline | Media owner stops it and saves evidence |
| Placement AD-B | Paid use of C41 in the agency account | Paid-use deadline | Agency stops it and sends evidence |
| Placement WEB-A | Website copy of C41 | Website-use deadline | Ecommerce owner removes and verifies it |
Closing AD-A does not close AD-B. The website copy can remain only under its separate permission. Removing C41 from the shared drive proves neither ad has stopped.
Use a renewal decision date early enough to replace creative and contact each placement owner. That lead time is an internal control, not a platform rule. If renewal remains unsigned at the deadline, follow the existing end-of-term instructions. Keep any later extension as a new dated record rather than overwriting the expired grant.
Check platform authorization separately
A platform control and a contractual licence can have different end dates. Record both and investigate any mismatch before continuing the affected use.
TikTok's Spark Ads creation guide says the authorized-post selection flow shows an authorization period beneath each post. For manual and search campaigns, it also says a video code can be deleted only after all ads using that video have been deleted in TikTok Ads Manager.
That is a reason to inventory every ad attached to a video. Pausing an ad does not satisfy TikTok's stated prerequisite for deleting its code. Plan the stop-delivery action and any later ad/code deletion as separate tasks. Save the records you need before deletion, and use the platform's current instructions for the relevant campaign type.
Do not treat a visible authorization period as permission to extend a shorter contractual term. Equally, a contract extension does not prove that the necessary platform authorization is active.
Takedown task checklist
Use this checklist for each expiring permission. Apply the agreement's actual end-of-term requirements; an organic post with an agreed survival clause may need a different action from an expiring ad.
- Confirm the asset versions and the permission that is ending.
- Freeze new uses, scheduled posts and future email sends that would fall outside that permission.
- Find every live ad, including duplicates in agency or regional accounts.
- Assign a named owner to each ad, page, post, embed and other covered placement.
- Stop delivery, remove or replace each placement as required by the agreement.
- Complete any separate platform authorization cleanup that applies.
- Verify the public page or post and the relevant ad delivery status after the action.
- Save dated evidence against each placement row, including partner confirmations.
- Mark library copies as unavailable for reuse. Retain or delete files under the agreed terms and your applicable retention requirements.
- Keep unresolved uses open with an owner and escalation deadline.
An email already delivered to a recipient cannot be treated like a draft waiting in your scheduler. Record sent uses separately and ask an adviser about any required response. Likewise, distinguish placements your team controls from third-party copies that need a removal request. Do not certify that every copy on the internet is gone.
Close the permission only when every listed placement has a verified outcome or a documented exception that the responsible decision-maker has accepted. Start with the asset whose rights end soonest: locate its agreement, list its live placements and give each one a named owner today.
