Terms of Cooperation with Creators

These terms govern the cooperation between the operator of the Hero of the Book website and a content creator — an influencer, an author of UGC videos or anyone else who creates content for the operator or presents its product to their audience.

They are a framework. What exactly you are to create, what we may use the content for, for how long and what you get in return is set out in the specific agreement — in the overview you received by link and approved together with these terms. Where the framework and the specific agreement differ, the specific agreement prevails.

1. Who offers the cooperation

• Name: Lukáš Kantor, a natural person doing business under the Czech Trade Licensing Act
• Company ID: 03177009, VAT ID: CZ9109235410
• Registered office: Milíkov 244, 739 81 Milíkov
• Contact e-mail: contact@heroofthebook.com

(hereinafter the "operator"). The person who has accepted the specific agreement is hereinafter the "creator".

These terms concern exclusively the relationship between the operator and the creator. The purchase of goods is governed by the terms and conditions — the creator is not the operator's representative and must not promise or arrange anything in its name.

The cooperation is independent of the affiliate and credit programme. Commissions and credit from recommendations continue on their own path and the reward from this cooperation does not count towards them — and vice versa.

2. How the cooperation arises

The operator sends the creator a link to the specific agreement. It sets out the brief, the scope of use of the content, the licence period, the reward and any further conditions. The creator fills in their details, approves the agreement with a button, and the contract is thereby concluded.

Approval by button is a valid conclusion of a contract. The law leaves the choice of form to the parties (Section 559 of the Czech Civil Code, Act No. 89/2012 Coll.) and, under Section 562(1), written form is preserved electronically as well, provided that the means used allow the content to be captured and the acting person to be determined. Upon acceptance, the operator therefore stores the entire wording the creator had in front of them, together with the date, time and IP address; the link is unique and is delivered to the creator's e-mail. The operator promptly sends the creator a confirmation of the cooperation in PDF with the same wording.

The specific agreement may only be changed by agreement of both parties — the operator sends the change in the same way and the creator accepts it in the same way.

If the creator brings their own contract and the operator signs it, that contract prevails; these terms then govern only what it does not address.

3. Who can cooperate

A creator may be a natural or legal person over 18 years of age with full legal capacity.

If the creator is under 18, the specific agreement is accepted by their legal representative and the link is sent to the representative's e-mail. A minor has legal capacity only for acts appropriate to the intellectual and volitional maturity of their age (Section 31 of the Czech Civil Code), and granting a licence for consideration is not among them. The legal representative is responsible for the fulfilment of the obligations under these terms just as if they had assumed them personally.

A monetary reward is paid solely against an invoice, i.e. only to a creator with a business registration number (in the Czech Republic the IČO, elsewhere its local equivalent). Without one, barter, credit or free goods are possible — but not money.

4. What the creator is to create

The brief, the number and format of the outputs, the channels and the deadline are determined by the specific agreement.

Unless the specific agreement provides otherwise, the creator is not obliged to publish the output — they create it and hand it over. If an obligation to publish is agreed, it is stated in the agreement together with the deadline and the channel.

The creator creates the content in their own way. The operator specifies what is to be communicated, not how the creator should speak; it does not prescribe working hours or place, and the creator is not its employee.

The operator may comment on the output once in writing if it conflicts with the brief, with legislation or with the rules under Articles 5 and 6. The creator has a reasonable period for amendments, at least 5 working days.

5. Labelling of advertising

Every output for which the creator receives a reward must be clearly and comprehensibly labelled as advertising or paid cooperation, right at the beginning of the communication and regardless of whether the reward is money, goods, credit or anything else. The label must be legible without clicking "more" and must not be hidden among other tags.

This is not a formality: paid promotion within editorial content from which the consumer cannot tell that it is advertising is an unfair commercial practice prohibited in all circumstances (point 11 of Annex I to Directive 2005/29/EC and the legislation by which Member States have transposed it). The advertiser, i.e. the operator, is also liable for unlabelled advertising — which is why labelling is an instruction of the advertiser and a breach of it is a material breach of these terms.

Advertising must be recognisable as advertising. Within the European Union and the European Economic Area, using editorial content to promote a product where the trader has paid for the promotion without making that clear to the consumer (advertorial, hidden advertising) is an unfair commercial practice in all circumstances under point 11 of Annex I to Directive 2005/29/EC; no proof that anyone was actually influenced is required. The same rule applies in substance in the United States: a material connection between the endorser and the advertiser must be disclosed clearly and conspicuously under Section 5 of the Federal Trade Commission Act (15 U.S.C. § 45) and the FTC Endorsement Guides (16 CFR Part 255). The label must be visible in the publication itself (in the post, video or article), not only in a profile description or behind a link.

For commercial communications sent by e-mail or SMS the rules differ by country and the stricter one applies. In the European Union and the European Economic Area, prior consent of the addressee is required (Article 13 of Directive 2002/58/EC; in the Czech Republic Section 7 of Act No. 480/2004 Coll., on certain information society services). In the United States, CAN-SPAM (15 U.S.C. §§ 7701–7713) does not require prior consent but demands truthful headers and subject lines, a clear indication that the message is an advertisement, a valid postal address and a working opt-out honoured within ten business days. In Canada, CASL (S.C. 2010, c. 23) requires express or implied consent. Bulk unsolicited messages are not permitted under this cooperation in any case.

The creator must also:

• present the product truthfully and in line with the information on the operator's website; not to promise features, prices, deadlines or guarantees that the operator does not provide,
• label as paid cooperation also any further communications about the product issued during the cooperation, where they follow from the reward,
• comply with the rules of the platform on which they publish.

6. What must not appear in the communication

In the output or in related communications, the creator must not:

• urge children to buy or to ask adults to buy for them ("tell your mum to buy it for you"). This is an aggressive commercial practice prohibited in all circumstances — point 28 of Annex I to Directive 2005/29/EC,
• pass off paid cooperation as a spontaneous recommendation or pretend not to be acting for purposes relating to their business (point 22 of the same Annex),
• give fabricated reviews or ratings, or claim that the product has been tried by someone who has not tried it (points 23b and 23c of the same Annex),
• attribute to the product healing, therapeutic or developmental-diagnostic effects or link it with solving a child's health or psychological difficulties,
• compare the product with competitors by name, disparage other manufacturers or use third-party trade marks,
• state prices, discounts, delivery times and parameters that do not correspond to the current state on the operator's website,
• publish personal data of third parties (name, school, address, the content of another customer's order),
• place the output next to unlawful content, adult content, hateful, violent or discriminatory content.

The specific agreement may extend this list.

7. Licence to the content

The creator grants the operator a licence to use the content created (photographs, video, audio, text) under Section 2358 et seq. of the Czech Civil Code.

The licence is:

• non-exclusive — the creator may continue to use the content themselves and grant it to another,
• unlimited in territory,
• granted for the period stated in the specific agreement; if no period is stated, for 6 months from acceptance,
• for consideration — the reward under Article 9 also includes the reward for the licence; no separate payment is due for it.

The scope of use is stated in the specific agreement and has three levels:

• the creator's own channels — the operator merely shares the content and links to it,
• the operator's channels — social network profiles, website, e-shop, newsletter, printed materials,
• paid advertising — Meta, Google, Sklik and other advertising systems, including paid boosting of a post on the creator's profile.

The operator may shorten the content, add subtitles, a logo, a price or music and combine it with other works to the extent usual for advertising communications. It must not modify it in a way that reduces the value of the work or changes its meaning (Section 2375(2) of the Czech Civil Code).

The operator may assign the licence or grant a sub-licence to persons who provide the production and deployment of advertising for it (an agency, an advertising system, a printing house), to the extent to which it holds the licence itself.

After the licence ends, the operator will stop using the content and will withdraw it from its channels and from advertising systems; no later than within 10 working days of the end. Copies and materials already produced in printed form are not withdrawn, and archive copies for evidencing compliance with legal obligations are not deleted.

8. Likeness, voice and children

If a person appears in the output, the creator at the same time grants consent to the capture and dissemination of their likeness and voice recording under Sections 84 and 85 of the Czech Civil Code, to the same extent and for the same period as the licence under Article 7.

If children appear in the output:

• for the creator's own children, consent is granted by the creator as legal representative; by accepting the specific agreement they confirm that they are entitled to grant it,
• for other people's children, the creator must provide the consent of their legal representative, in writing or electronically, stating the representative's name and contact details. Until the consent is provided, the operator will not use the content in paid advertising.

Consent may be withdrawn at any time — even if it was given for a fixed period (Section 87(1) of the Czech Civil Code). This right cannot be excluded by these terms and the operator does not exclude it. It is enough to send the withdrawal to the contact e-mail; the operator withdraws the content from its channels and from advertising systems within 5 working days of delivery of the withdrawal. If the creator withdraws consent without reasonable grounds at a time when the operator is lawfully using the content, they will compensate the operator for the damage thereby caused (Section 87(2)) — typically the cost of advertising already produced or paid for.

Withdrawal of consent does not affect the reward for content that has been delivered; that remains with the creator.

9. Reward

The reward is determined by the specific agreement, item by item, including where goods or credit are involved. For each item, a monetary value in the currency of the agreement is stated; for goods, their selling price is stated, i.e. the price at which they are offered to anyone else. The reward includes the reward for creating the content, for the licence under Article 7 and for the consent under Article 8.

The reward may take the form of:

• free goods or services (a book, an additional copy, a canvas print, an audiobook, gift add-ons) — the operator delivers them after acceptance of the agreement, unless the parties agree otherwise,
• credit towards a future purchase — it is added to the creator's account and is governed by the rules for using credit; it is not paid out in money,
• money — only against an invoice under Article 3. The creator issues the invoice after handing over the output; it is due within 14 days of its delivery, unless agreed otherwise. If the creator is not a tax resident of the Czech Republic, the operator may withhold tax from the reward under Article 10.

If the creator does not deliver the agreed output, no reward is due and the creator returns any goods already delivered or pays their selling price. If goods were delivered that by their nature cannot be returned (a personalised book with a child's name), the operator does not require their return — only the monetary part is settled.

The creator's costs (travel, props, editing) are included in the reward unless the specific agreement provides otherwise.

10. Taxes

The creator settles the tax obligations arising from the reward themselves, unless stated otherwise below.

If the creator is a tax resident of the Czech Republic, the operator withholds no tax from the reward and files no report on the creator's behalf.

If the creator is not a tax resident of the Czech Republic, the monetary reward for the licence under Article 7 is income from sources in the territory of the Czech Republic (Section 22(1)(g) point 2 of Act No. 586/1992 Coll., on Income Taxes) and the operator, as the payer of the tax, is obliged to withhold tax at the special rate under Section 36 of the same Act. An international double taxation treaty takes precedence over the Act (Section 37 of the same Act); the operator will apply the rate under such a treaty if the creator provides a certificate of tax domicile issued for the period in which the reward is paid. The certificate must be provided before payment — afterwards the operator can no longer refund the tax withheld and the creator claims it with the tax authority themselves. The operator issues the creator a certificate of the tax withheld.

The domestic withholding rate is 15 %; it rises to 35 % under Section 36(1)(c) of Act No. 586/1992 Coll. if the creator is a tax resident of a state that has with the Czech Republic neither a double taxation treaty nor an agreement on the exchange of tax information and is not a Member State of the European Union or of the European Economic Area. A reduced treaty rate can only be applied if, together with the certificate of tax residence, the creator declares that they are the beneficial owner of the reward. A non-monetary reward (goods, credit) counts at its normal market price, which is why its value is stated in the individual arrangement.

As regards value added tax, the place of supply of the licence to the operator is the Czech Republic (Article 44 of Directive 2006/112/EC; Section 9(1) of Act No. 235/2004 Coll., on value added tax). A creator established in the European Union who acts as a taxable person invoices without VAT with a note that the tax is reverse charged to the recipient; even a creator who is not registered for VAT at home has to obtain a VAT identification number for this cross-border supply and report it in a recapitulative statement (Article 262 of Directive 2006/112/EC), because the small-undertaking exemption covers domestic supplies only. A creator established outside the European Union invoices without EU VAT and the operator self-assesses the Czech tax.

11. The creator's representations

The creator represents that:

• they are the author of the output or hold all the rights to it needed to grant the licence to the extent under Article 7,
• for the music, typefaces, footage and other third-party elements used in the output they hold a licence that also covers use in paid advertising (an ordinary music licence within a social network mobile app usually does not cover it),
• they have the consent of all persons appearing in the output,
• the output does not infringe the rights of third parties or legislation.

If any of the representations proves untrue, the creator will compensate the operator for the harm thereby caused — including the costs of withdrawing the advertising and of settling a third-party claim.

12. Exclusivity

Only if agreed in the specific agreement does the creator undertake not to promote competing products, i.e. personalised children's books of other manufacturers, for the duration of the cooperation. If this is not agreed, the creator is not so restricted.

This undertaking concerns promotion; it does not create an exclusive licence under Article 7 and does not prevent the creator from continuing to use their own content.

13. Duration and termination

The cooperation lasts until the obligations of both parties have been fulfilled. The licence period and the period of consent continue to run after it ends, for the periods under Articles 7 and 8.

Either party may terminate the cooperation in writing or by e-mail until the output has been delivered; delivered outputs are settled under Article 9.

If the creator materially breaches these terms — in particular by failing to publish the advertising label under Article 5 or by breaching Article 6 — the operator may terminate the cooperation with immediate effect, withdraw from the licence and demand the return of the reward or a proportionate part of it. In such a case the operator does not enforce publication of the output; any agreed obligation to publish ceases to exist.

Termination of the cooperation does not affect Article 8 (withdrawal of consent), Article 11 (representations) and Article 14 (personal data).

14. Personal data protection

The operator processes the creator's name, e-mail, telephone, profile links, address, registration number and bank details, the content of the specific agreement and the delivered outputs as a controller. The legal basis is performance of a contract under Article 6(1)(b) GDPR and compliance with legal obligations under point (c), and, for published content, the legitimate interest in promoting its own offering under point (f).

Data on the acceptance of the agreement (date, time, IP address and the wording the creator saw) is retained by the operator for the duration of the licence and thereafter for the limitation period — it is the only evidence of what was agreed.

If children appear in the output, the operator processes their likeness on the basis of consent under Sections 84 and 85 of the Czech Civil Code; this may be withdrawn at any time under Article 8.

The operator retains data about the creator for the duration of the cooperation and thereafter for the limitation period of the rights arising from it; documents relating to the reward for the period required by tax and accounting legislation.

The creator has the right of access to their data, to its rectification and erasure, to restriction of processing and portability, and the right to object to processing based on legitimate interest. These can be exercised at contact@heroofthebook.com. Erasure does not extend to data that the operator must retain under legislation or for the establishment and defence of legal claims — in particular the wording of the agreement, evidence of its acceptance and documents relating to the reward.

If the creator is not satisfied with the operator's conduct, they may lodge a complaint with a supervisory authority. Under Article 77(1) of the GDPR the creator chooses the authority, in particular in the Member State of their habitual residence, of their place of work or of the place of the alleged infringement; the European Data Protection Board keeps the list. The operator's authority is the Office for Personal Data Protection (Úřad pro ochranu osobních údajů, Pplk. Sochora 27, 170 00 Praha 7, Czech Republic, uoou.gov.cz). A creator living outside the European Economic Area may turn to the operator directly at the contact address, or to a court.

15. Liability

The operator does not guarantee any reach, number of views or orders and is not liable for a platform's decision to restrict or remove the output.

The creator is liable for the content they publish and for the compliance of their communication with legislation and with Articles 5 and 6 of these terms.

16. Final provisions

The relationship is governed by the law of the Czech Republic. If the creator is a consumer habitually resident in another country, the choice of Czech law does not deprive them of the protection afforded by the mandatory provisions of the law of their country (Article 6(2) of Regulation (EC) No 593/2008).

The creator is not an employee, commercial agent or partner of the operator and no employment relationship arises between them.

If any provision of these terms is invalid or ineffective, this does not affect the validity of the remaining provisions.

The current wording of the terms is always available on this page. Please send any questions to contact@heroofthebook.com.