An embargo is a rule that keeps an asset hidden or unusable until a set date and time. Assets under embargo exist in the library — uploaded, tagged, and ready — but stay out of circulation until the moment they are officially released.

Embargoes exist because launches are prepared long before they happen. Product photography is shot months ahead; press kits are assembled weeks early; campaign films sit finished while legal and retail alignment catches up. All of that material has to live somewhere, and "somewhere" cannot be a system where a partner or a colleague can stumble onto it and share it early. An embargo lets the team work with pre-launch assets internally while guaranteeing that portals, share links, and search results for wider audiences show nothing until the clock runs out.

The mirror image of an embargo is expiry: where an embargo defines when circulation starts, an expiry date defines when it ends. Together they form the asset's publication window, and both only matter if they are enforced by the system rather than tracked in a spreadsheet — an embargo that depends on someone remembering to flip a switch at midnight is a press leak waiting to happen.

In freedam, embargo and expiry dates are set per asset and enforced automatically: embargoed assets stay hidden from unauthorized audiences until the release time, and expired assets leave circulation without manual cleanup.

Related terms: Usage Rights, Access Control, Digital Rights Management (DRM)