Guiding Principles

The goal of Upstart is:

We believe that art and information are generally good, that proper compensation will lead to work of higher quality and quantity, and that an online service can play a key role in this. We also believe that art and information is the most beneficial to the world when everyone can see it. This implies that content should be both affordable and discoverable. In a world where there is more information than can possibly be viewed by an individual, it is important to be able to find what you are seeking.
We believe that context is a fundamental aspect of appreciating art and information. Knowing who made things, when they were made, and what works or events they may be referencing, are all important pieces of context that can be easily lost in a digital world. Accessing the context of a piece of digital content should be as easy as accessing the content itself. We also believe that there is no reason for the fidelity of a work to degrade over time in a digital world, which can often happen when works are downloaded, converted, annotated/modified/synthesised, and re-uploaded. Thus we will also take the role of curators, preventing the propagation of duplicates.
None of the above goals are worthwhile at the expense of human decency.