Creator Terms

1. Who is a creator

A creator is anyone who publishes a story on Forky, whether made in the Forky app or in TokiToki Studio. You accept these Creator Terms in the app before you publish for the first time. They are part of the Terms of Service, and the Community Guidelines and Copyright & IP policy apply to everything you publish.

Anyone who meets the age rules in the Terms can publish. To put a story behind a paid unlock and receive payouts, you must be at least 18 and complete verification.

2. What you promise

For every story you publish, you confirm that:

• you own, or have written permission for, the script, characters, music, video, images, voices, performers and likenesses in it, including anything generated with AI from reference material;
• everyone who appears in it, or whose voice or likeness is used, has consented, and any minors appearing have a parent or guardian’s consent;
• it complies with the Community Guidelines and the law where you are and where it is shown;
• you have disclosed any paid sponsorship or product placement;
• the age rating and content notes you set are accurate;
• you will not use fake engagement, bots or refund abuse to inflate views or earnings.

If someone makes a claim against us because your story broke one of these promises, you are responsible for the resulting costs, to the extent the law allows.

3. Your rights and our licence

You own your story. We do not take ownership of anything you make. You can publish it elsewhere, adapt it, and sell it to others; Forky is non-exclusive.

Our licence is the one in section 5 of the Terms of Service: a worldwide, non-exclusive, royalty-free licence to host, transcode, render the branching format, distribute and display your story on Forky, to show excerpts to promote it on Forky and our own channels, and to produce the previews and clips you ask for. It lasts while the story is on Forky, subject to the obligations in section 7 to people who paid for it. The royalty-free part refers to the licence itself; your earnings under section 6 are separate.

What we don’t do without separate permission: post your story to social platforms you haven’t connected and approved, use it in paid advertising outside Forky beyond ordinary discovery, license it to third parties, or allow third-party AI providers to train on it.

4. Free previews and paid unlocks

Every story on Forky starts with a free preview. If you choose to charge, viewers pay a single price in Forky Bucks to unlock the rest. One unlock opens:

• every released episode and branch of that story or season, and
• every future episode and branch you commit to when you set the price (shown to viewers as “includes X more episodes”).

There are no per-choice paywalls. The minimum free preview, available price points and the maximum number of promised episodes are set in the Creator dashboard and may change for new stories; existing prices stay as they were. Before anyone buys, Forky shows the price in their local currency, what is included, and whether the story is still being made.

Once a viewer has unlocked a story, they keep access regardless of your later eligibility, unless the story is lawfully removed. If you fail to deliver episodes you promised within 6 months of the promise, viewers may be refunded and the refunds deducted from your earnings.

5. Eligibility for earnings

Paid unlocks and payouts are available to creators who:

• are 18 or over;
• meet the current activity requirements, including a minimum number of qualified views across their published stories, as shown in the Creator dashboard;
• have an account in good standing, with no active strikes under the Community Guidelines or the Copyright & IP policy;
• complete identity verification and provide valid payout and tax details;
• accept the payout terms presented in the dashboard.

We show the exact requirements in the app and tell you when you meet them. We may change the requirements for new applicants; creators already enrolled keep their status unless they breach these terms. Eligibility does not guarantee discovery, views, revenue or payouts.

6. Revenue share and payouts

• Your share. You receive a percentage of the net receipts from unlocks of your stories. The percentage, and how net receipts are calculated, are shown in the Creator dashboard and in the payout terms you accept before monetizing. Net receipts means what we actually receive after app store fees, taxes, payment processing, refunds, chargebacks and currency conversion. Promotional Forky Bucks we give away do not generate receipts.
• Balance. The balance shown in your dashboard is an estimate until it is reconciled after each payout period.
• Payouts. Payouts are made monthly to the payout method you have verified, once your reconciled balance reaches the minimum payout amount shown in the dashboard. Payout timing depends on verification, banking and legal checks.
• Withholding. We may withhold or claw back amounts connected to refunds, chargebacks, fraud, fake engagement, copyright strikes or other violations, and we may be required to withhold tax. We do not withhold undisputed earned amounts indefinitely; disputes are resolved within 60 days where possible.
• Remixes. Where a remixed story earns money, it is split between the original creator and the remixer according to the split shown when remixing was enabled.
• No cash-outs. Viewers cannot convert Forky Bucks to cash. Your payouts are a contractual revenue share funded by real purchases, not a conversion of credits.

7. Removing a story

You can unpublish or delete a story at any time. If people have paid to unlock it, we may keep it available to those people only, so they are not left with a purchase they can’t use, or you can ask us to remove it entirely and refund buyers, with the refunds deducted from your earnings. If we remove a story for breaking the rules, buyers may be refunded and the refunds deducted. If your account is closed for a violation, we pay out undisputed earnings above the minimum after deducting any amounts connected to the violation.

8. AI assistance and co-authors

You may use the AI tools in Forky and TokiToki Studio to help write, illustrate, voice and render your story. The rights status of AI-generated content varies by country; you are responsible for making sure you have the rights you need and for labelling AI content where the Community Guidelines or a social platform require it. See the AI & Social Connections notice.

If you make a story with other people, agree on ownership and revenue splits before publishing, and record them using the co-author settings in Studio. We pay the shares you have recorded and are not responsible for disputes between co-authors.

9. Tax and identity

Ethereal Labs Private Limited is the seller of record for Forky Bucks sold through the app stores, and pays creators as independent contractors. You are responsible for any tax on your earnings. We or our payout provider will ask for identity and tax information (such as PAN or GST details in India, or a W-8/W-9 form for US tax purposes) and may withhold tax where the law requires. We report payouts to tax authorities where required.

10. Changes to the program

We may change these Creator Terms, the eligibility requirements, price points and the revenue share. We will notify enrolled creators at least 30 days before a material change takes effect, and changes do not reduce earnings already accrued. If you do not agree to a change, you can unpublish your stories and leave the program. Questions about the program: admin@ethereallabs.in, subject “Forky Creator”.