Moderately Media LLC operates Capital Sideline, Moderately MoCo, and related websites and social channels. This agreement covers everything you contribute through the Press Room portal — photos, articles, video, captions, and game information — and any event coverage you do for us in the field. You are an independent contributor, not an employee, and participation is unpaid unless we agree otherwise in writing.
You keep full ownership of everything you create. By submitting content, you grant Moderately Media LLC a perpetual, non-exclusive, royalty-free license to publish, reproduce, and reuse it across all Moderately Media LLC properties and channels — current and future — including capitalsideline.com, Moderately MoCo, and every social channel either brand operates (Instagram, TikTok, Facebook, YouTube, X, Threads, and others), for editorial, educational, and promotional purposes. This includes cropping, resizing, and editing your content to fit each platform, and composing it into new graphics — for example adding text or combining photos into a featured image. This license continues for content already submitted even if your participation ends.
Prints, products, and sales. The license also lets Moderately Media LLC offer your content for sale — for example as prints, downloads, or on merchandise such as mugs and apparel — and to license it to third parties for those purposes. Sales are different from the editorial and promotional uses above: if we sell your work, you earn a commission on those sales. We will publish the commission rates and payment terms before any contributor's work is first offered for sale, and you can opt your future submissions out of sales at any time by telling us in writing.
With this version you also give us permission to send your submitted articles and photos to other editorial outlets — other local bloggers, a county school system's website or social channel, and the like — so more people can read your work. This is different from the sales license in Section 2: those are commercial products; syndication is editorial, and it only happens with credit to both Capital Sideline and you as the photographer or writer.
Credit is a hard condition. The outlet must credit Capital Sideline and name you as the creator — if either credit is missing, that use is not authorized by this agreement. We pick which outlets get your work, and we pick what to send them. We do not share your raw files or contact details; we share published articles and their photos the way we'd point a reader at capitalsideline.com. We may crop or resize your photos only to fit an outlet's format — we will not alter the meaning of your words or your image, and we will not use syndication for commercial resale (that's the sales license in Section 2 instead). If an outlet wants to use your work commercially, that goes through the sales path and you earn a commission.
You confirm that you created the content you submit — or hold the rights to it — and that it doesn't infringe anyone else's rights or violate the credentialing rules of any venue, school, league, or team.
We attach your chosen credit line whenever your work is used on our channels. You can update your credit line in Settings; future uses pick up the new version, and prior uses keep the credit they ran with. You are never required to credit Moderately Media LLC when sharing your own work.
Photos you submit join a shared media library and may be reused in other Capital Sideline or Moderately MoCo coverage, always with your credit attached. Other contributors' work in that library belongs to them: you may feature it inside your portal contributions, and you may not download, screenshot, or republish anyone else's work outside the platform. Doing so is grounds for losing your credentials.
The game information, notes, and captions you submit may be used to produce AI-assisted article drafts, which you review and edit before they go to the desk; published AI-assisted articles carry a disclosure line. We may also use AI tools to edit or process submitted photos and video — for example cleanup, sizing, or preparing platform-specific versions.
Your portfolio, your personal accounts, your call. If you hold independent credentials, you may also sell your work where venue and league rules allow — compliance with those rules is your responsibility, and Moderately Media LLC assumes none for violations. (Work shot under one of our press passes follows Section 9 instead.)
Event coverage happens at fields, stadiums, gyms, arenas, and community venues, and carries inherent risks — slips, falls, weather, and proximity to active play. You participate at your own risk and release Moderately Media LLC from claims for ordinary negligence (this release does not apply to gross negligence or intentional misconduct, and covers both in-person and remote activities). At events you agree to: stay in approved media or spectator areas; never enter a playing surface without express authorization; shoot from safe positions; act professionally; and follow every venue, school, and league rule attached to your credential. We don't provide transportation. In an emergency, venue or event staff may seek medical care for you; medical expenses are your responsibility.
Moderately Media LLC may issue you a press credential — a Capital Sideline / Moderately MoCo media pass — for specific venues, schools, or leagues. Work created under one of our passes comes with two commitments. First, you file it: photos, video, or writing produced under our passes must be submitted through the Press Room, where this agreement (including the Section 2 license) covers it. Second, you respect the pass type: our credentials are media passes, not for-profit passes. Some issuers restrict separately selling work shot under a media pass — for example, MCPS permits commercial resale only under its own separate for-profit (Tier 3) credential. Where such a rule applies, you agree not to separately sell work created under our passes. That restriction comes from the issuing venue or league, not from us: Section 7 still governs work you shoot under your own independent credentials, and portal sales with commission (Section 2) are unaffected.
If you're under 18, a parent or guardian must sign the portal's parental consent form before the desk can approve your credentials. Your dashboard walks you through it: enter a parent or guardian's email and we send them a secure signing link.
This agreement runs for as long as you contribute. Either of us can end it at any time, and the desk may suspend or revoke portal access with or without cause. The license in Section 2 survives for content already submitted or published.
Checking the agreement box in the portal is your signature; we record the date, the time, and the version you accepted. We keep: your name, email, and social handles; your credit line; your submissions and the information attached to them, including captions, game details, and timestamps; a record of your license acceptances; and, if you are under 18, your parent or guardian's name, relationship, email, and signature. We use this to run your account, attach your credit, review and publish your work, and send you notifications about your submissions. We do not sell your information. Where we hold a record of permission for work contributed by someone who is not a portal member, that record is visible only to desk staff.