--- title: "Does the Applicant use, disseminate or display material or content of others?" url: https://insuranceposture.com/questions/governance-and-workforce/applicant-disseminate-display-material-content-others category: "Governance and workforce" canonical_key: q_gov_015 evidence_state: attested updated: 2026-08-24 --- # Does the Applicant use, disseminate or display material or content of others? URL: https://insuranceposture.com/questions/governance-and-workforce/applicant-disseminate-display-material-content-others Section: Governance and workforce Evidence state: Attested, not tenant-verifiable Almost every organisation answers yes, usually without realising how much content is in use or where its licences are. ## What the carrier is actually asking The carrier is asking whether you use, distribute, or display material created by others: images, music, video, text, fonts, and software components. It relates to the media liability and intellectual property elements of the policy. ## Why it is underwritten Copyright claims are frequent, inexpensive to bring, and often pursued at scale by rights holders using automated detection. Cyber policies commonly include some intellectual property cover for published content, and the carrier wants to understand the exposure. ## Where the answer lives in Microsoft 365, Entra ID, and Azure Licensing records are attested, and the estate is usually larger than the record. | Platform | Where the setting lives | What has to be true | | --- | --- | --- | | Asset records | Licences for images, video, music, and fonts in use | Licence evidence per asset, including scope and expiry. Attested | | Agency | Content produced by agencies and its licensing | Whether licences transferred to you and what they permit | | Website | Fonts and embedded media on public properties | Font licensing in particular, which is a common and frequently enforced gap | | Software | Open source components and their licence obligations | A component inventory with licences, since some obligations attach to distribution | | Process | Approval before content is published | A route that checks licensing before publication rather than after a demand letter | **Fonts and stock images are the common claims** Web font licences frequently limit page views or domains, and stock image licences expire. Both are detected automatically by rights holders and pursued at volume. Neither feels like intellectual property risk until the letter arrives. ## What a defensible yes requires - Licences are held and retrievable for content in use. - Agency-produced content has documented licensing, transferred to you. - Font and stock licences are tracked for expiry and scope. - Open source components are inventoried with their licence obligations. - A review happens before publication. ## How this answer goes wrong The answer is no because the organisation does not think of itself as using others content, while the website carries stock photography, a licensed font, and an agency-produced video. All three are third-party content, and the licensing for at least one of them cannot be located. ## If this answer turns out to be wrong The attestation clause you sign lives in this block, and its wording decides whether your answers are treated as representations or as something stricter. Whether anything follows from an inaccuracy depends on materiality, on the policy wording, and on the law of the governing state: [whether an answer is a warranty or a representation](https://insuranceposture.com/glossary/warranty). The other consequence terms are collected in the [glossary](https://insuranceposture.com/glossary). ## Frequently asked ### Does open source software count? For this question usually the focus is published media, and open source licence obligations are a genuine adjacent exposure worth inventorying. ### What if an agency produced the content? Get the licences and the indemnity in writing. The publisher is the target of the claim regardless of who sourced the asset. ### Are fonts really a risk? One of the most commonly enforced. Web font licensing is scope-limited and monitored, and unlicensed use is detected automatically. ### Is this covered by cyber insurance? Often partially, through media liability. Scope varies considerably, and it is worth reading if publishing is central to your business. ## Related questions - [Does the Applicant have a privacy review process (attorney) for published content / media?](https://insuranceposture.com/questions/governance-and-workforce/applicant-privacy-review-process-published-content-media) - [Does the Applicant have a formal process to ensure its products or services do not infringe the intellectual property rights of others?](https://insuranceposture.com/questions/services-and-contracts/applicant-formal-process-ensure-products-services-not-infringe-intellectual) - [Does the Applicant have written privacy policy reviewed by attorney and updated annually?](https://insuranceposture.com/questions/data-handling/applicant-written-privacy-policy-reviewed-by-attorney-updated-annually) - [Do the Applicant's software products or services address any specific high-exposure activities (IT security, e-commerce, finance/banking, medical/healthcare, media broadcasting/streaming, ERP/CRM/SCM, custom programming)?](https://insuranceposture.com/questions/services-and-contracts/applicant-s-software-products-services-address-specific-high-exposure) --- Insurance Posture by SecValley. https://insuranceposture.com The question library is written in our own wording to reflect the control topics that recur across US cyber application and ransomware supplemental forms. No carrier form is republished. SecValley is not a law firm, an insurance broker, an agent, or a carrier, and holds no producer licence. Nothing here is insurance advice, legal advice, or a coverage determination, and no attorney-client relationship arises from reading it. Statements about what a party to a cited case did, knew, or intended are allegations drawn from court filings and contemporaneous reporting, not findings of fact. Your organization's authorized signer remains responsible for the accuracy of any application. Consult a licensed broker and qualified counsel before binding.