These are the terms for using BW, made by Wonderful So. Using the app means agreeing to them.
You keep every right you have in the photographs you take. Nothing here transfers ownership and nothing here lets us sell, license or train on your work.
When you publish a photograph you give us permission to store it and show it to other people using the app — which is the only way publishing could work. That permission ends when you delete the photograph or your account, except for backup copies that expire on their own schedule.
These rules are deliberately blunt. BW is run by a small team without moderators on duty around the clock, so every line here has to be one that an automatic review and a person reading a queue the next morning can both apply. A rule that needs a judgement call at three in the morning is a rule that does not get enforced, and we would rather be clear than sophisticated.
No nudity, no sexual content, and nothing whose evident purpose is arousal. This includes artistic nudity, which many photographers will reasonably feel is a loss — the figure is a serious subject with a long history, and we are not pretending otherwise.
The reason is capability rather than taste. Telling a nude study from pornography, and both from a photograph of somebody who never agreed to be seen that way, is a judgement that has to be made within hours by somebody qualified to make it. We cannot do that yet, and a rule we cannot enforce is worse than one we can. If that changes, this page changes with it.
Sexualised imagery of a minor is illegal everywhere and there is no artistic exception to it. Accounts are removed and the material is reported to the authorities. This is the one rule with no appeal.
No gore, no injury, no imagery that glorifies violence, and nothing that reads as a threat to a person or a group.
A weapon in a photograph is not itself a problem. A rifle over a shoulder in a field is a subject; a rifle pointed at the camera is a threat, and the difference is the point rather than the object.
No hate symbols, and nothing published to degrade somebody for who they are — their race, religion, sex, sexuality, disability or any of the rest. Photographing a protest is documentary; publishing a symbol approvingly is not.
Do not publish a recognisable person in a private moment or a private place without their permission, and never publish intimate imagery of somebody without it. Street photography of people in public is a tradition and it is fine; a photograph somebody would be distressed to find here is not.
If you are in one of these photographs and did not agree to it, write to [email protected] and it comes down. You do not need an account and you do not need to explain yourself.
Everything published here was captured in BW. Do not publish anybody else's work, and nothing that is a screenshot, a meme, a picture of text, or an advertisement.
Nothing illegal where you are or where we are, and nothing that impersonates another person or organisation.
Every photograph published is reviewed automatically once the day it belongs to has closed, and anything questionable is put in front of a person. Anybody can report a photograph from inside the app, and every report is read.
Nothing is removed automatically. A machine can ask for a second look; only a person decides. We may hide a photograph while it is being looked at, remove it, or close an account that keeps breaking these rules.
You can also block somebody, which takes effect immediately, needs no decision from us, and tells them nothing. If what you want is to stop seeing a person, that is faster than a report and it is not a lesser option.
You need an email address you control. One account per person. You can close it from inside the app at any time, and doing so deletes your published work.
We work on it, we test it, and we do not promise it is free of faults or that it will always be available. Photographs on your phone are yours to look after — the app is not a backup service, and an account is not one either.
To the extent the law allows, Wonderful So is not liable for lost work, lost profits, or anything indirect. Nothing here limits liability for death, personal injury, or fraud, because it cannot.
You can stop using BW whenever you like. We can close an account that breaks these terms, and will say why unless doing so would help somebody keep doing it.
These terms are subject to change. If we make a change that materially affects your rights or how the app works, we will make that clear in the app or on this page. The date at the top is the current version.
These terms are governed by the law of Delaware. If you are a consumer, this does not take away rights you have where you live.