# Can I license my members' posts to AI? > Can I license my members' posts to AI? For a business that runs a paid community, Skool's terms leave posts with members and give admins no license. By Matt Burns, Vaultfish. Canonical: https://vaultfish.com/answers/can-i-license-my-members-posts-to-ai Published: 2026-08-31 Updated: 2026-10-13 ## The short answer No. Skool's terms give Skool a limited license, not admins. Copyright vests in the author under 17 U.S.C. 201(a). Circle's terms differ. Member consent is required and likely, so ask each member or update your paperwork. A paid community can hold years of members' advice, questions and stories, and the business that runs it may see that archive as an asset. The platform's terms decide what the platform may do, and each member's rights decide the rest. ## What do Skool's terms say about member content? The [Skool terms](https://www.skool.com/legal?t=terms) say your content is yours, and that using Skool grants Skool a license to use, reproduce, distribute, create derivative works of, display and perform it. The license is for the limited purpose of providing, developing and improving the services, and it is non-exclusive. The same sentence explains that non-exclusive means you can still license your content to others. I read the full page and found no mention of AI or machine learning. ## Do group admins get any rights to members' posts? Not in the Skool terms I read. The admin provisions I found cover admin earnings and authorization to use the services on behalf of your organization. No clause I found gives an admin a license to what other members wrote. I found no public case of a business licensing its community's archive, so the question is untested. ## What does Circle say? [Circle's terms](https://www.circle.so/terms) give Circle a non-exclusive, worldwide, royalty-free, sublicensable and irrevocable license to process member content. Circle may also use it in a form that does not identify the source to develop and improve its products. The terms point to separate Community Terms for community rules, and I didn't read those. Whichever platform your community runs on, read its terms yourself. ## Who owns the copyright in a member's post? The author, unless a contract says otherwise. Section 201(a) of the [Copyright Act](https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/17/201) says copyright vests initially in the author of a work. Section 201(b) makes the employer the author of a work made for hire. That rule can cover posts your staff write as part of their jobs. Paying members aren't your employees, so their posts start with them. Counsel can say how that applies to a given archive. ## What does member consent look like? Consent for a new use is a separate question for each member. [AIPodcast's guest model](https://www.aipodcast.io/solutions/podcast-audio-licensing) shows what documented consent looks like for voices, with a signed release and a log (self-reported). See [podcast guests and AI licensing consent](/answers/podcast-guests-ai-licensing-consent). The [guide to licensing your business's content](/guides/license-your-business-content-to-ai) covers members, clients and guests together. The [rights check](/rights-check) and the [risk map](/risks) list the questions. Talk to a privacy or commercial lawyer in your state before you sign. No outcome is promised. Figure: comparison of Who holds rights to a post in a Skool community: Member who wrote it (emphasized: Author owns by default, Owns the post), Skool (Limited license), Community admin (No license in terms). Skool's terms leave a post with its author, give Skool a limited license and give admins none. _Vaultfish helps you run the process. We are not lawyers and this is not legal advice. If you need counsel who knows this area, we can point you to one._ ## Sources - [Skool terms](https://www.skool.com/legal?t=terms) - [Circle's terms](https://www.circle.so/terms) - [Copyright Act](https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/17/201) - [AIPodcast's guest model](https://www.aipodcast.io/solutions/podcast-audio-licensing)