From the FAQ:
Assembly owns the intellectual property on behalf of our members, because that’s the best way to protect your interests. However, Assembly also recognizes that our members should have the right to use their ideas in other contexts. As a result, we give our members a license back to their content to give them the flexibility to use their intellectual property in non-commercial ways.
There really isn't another way to do it for Assembly that I can see. They are the responsible entity that pays for infrastructure, assume the legal liability, provides the platform, provides the payout process.
They need control of the IP as part of that process and serve as an arbiter in the event of disputes.
Wouldn't that also stop the team from moving away from Assembly? It seems to me that the projects are permanently owned and bound to Assembly in perpetuity. That appears to be some serious lock in.
The standard practice of any Corporation or LLC that provides a service to distribute revenue based on contributions is to own and control the projects entire IP?
What happens if Assembly goes into bankruptcy and has to liquidate its IP? What if Assembly decides to shutdown a project because it has issue with the content/business? Can the project move onto another platform or can Assembly effectively shut it out of existence? What if Assembly decides to sell/transfer the IP to another entity for a fee?
I should add here that Trademarks are IP just as much as source code.
For example in https://assemblymade.com/terms the lawyers decided this needed all caps(in legal terms "conspicuous"). COMPANY is defined earlier with this snippet: Assembly, a Delaware corporation, and its corporate affiliates (collectively referred to herein as “Assembly”, "us", "we" or the "Company"). Section (V) is of particular interest.
THE SELECTION, DEVELOPMENT, AND SALE OF ANY APP IDEA IS SUBJECT TO THE COMPANY’S SOLE AND ABSOLUTE DISCRETION AND THE COMPANY RESERVES THE RIGHT, FOR ANY OR NO REASON, TO (I) REJECT ANY SUBMITTED APP IDEA, (II) REFUSE TO POST ANY SUBMITTED APP IDEA TO THE SITE, (III) TERMINATE THE DEVELOPMENT OR ANY PHASE RELATED TO AN APP IDEA, (IV) TERMINATE THE SALE OF ANY COMMERCIALIZED PRODUCT RELATED TO ANY APP IDEA, OR (V) SELL OR LICENSE AN APP IDEA, AND/OR ANY INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY RELATED THERETO, TO ANY THIRD PARTY.
And some more all caps(aka "conspicuous"):
YOU AGREE THAT COMPANY WILL NOT BE LIABLE TO YOU OR ANY OTHER PARTY FOR ANY TERMINATION OF YOUR ACCESS TO THE SITE, CONTENT OR MATERIALS.
I don't work/use Assembly so...I can't really answer the rest but:
> The standard practice of any Corporation or LLC that provides a service to distribute revenue based on contributions is to own and control the projects entire IP?
That isn't what I said. What I said was if you want the Corporation/LLC to handle legal liability, accounting, etc. the norm is for it to control the IP. I'm not a lawyer, I don't know if its possible to do it differently.
Based on that & your profile saying:
> I don't take HN all that seriously so I wouldn't read into my activity too much.
I'm just going to assume you are a troll at this point.
From the FAQ: Assembly owns the intellectual property on behalf of our members, because that’s the best way to protect your interests. However, Assembly also recognizes that our members should have the right to use their ideas in other contexts. As a result, we give our members a license back to their content to give them the flexibility to use their intellectual property in non-commercial ways.