Design Bundles Licensing Explained
There has been a lot of confusion on what is acceptable and not acceptable with license types when creating new products from other products as to not violate licensing terms or trademark/copyright.
Design Bundles probably has one of the more generous licensing terms. Other sites like Etsy have their end users create their policies and terms, however be careful, as you are taking a risk if personnel on Etsy are already infringing on trademark and copyright (think Disney and the like). You are responsible for any implications after downloading an image and should be able to research trademark and copyright images before creating your final work.
They lay out their specific licensing terms here, but to save face I'm going to go through it with some examples. I am NOT super artistically inclined so I do sometimes use other images to make my products, I either manipulate them greatly, or purchase them for commercial use.
DB is always updating their licensing so KEEP IN MIND THESE TERMS MAY HAVE CHANGED. ALWAYS CHECK THEIR WEBSITE FOR ACCURATE INFORMATION. ShootingStarSVG holds no liability for people misusing the licensing terms based off of the reading of this blog post. You are liable for using the licenses correctly.
Premium Use License
The premium license on DB allows you to use anything you purchase for PERSONAL or COMMERCIAL use. With the following definitions:
Personal Use - Using downloaded products for your own personal use. You do not sell these products for a profit.
Commercial Use - Using downloaded products for commercial purposes. You do sell these products for a profit.
Acceptable Uses:
Unlimited PERSONAL use products
Projects for commercial use to be sold to customers
No Limit for Commercial includes
- Making crafts and selling them
- Printing and selling PHYSICAL non-customizable products.
- Making and distributing flyers for a client
- Using these products in an app that can be downloaded
- Using the designs in software to create an 'end-product' FOR SALE that is PHYSICAL in nature
Limit for Commercial includes
- Use of web-fonts up to a total of 100K page views a month
- Use of products in e-books/printed books up to 10K sales a month
- Use with music videos, TV, film or other broadcast productions 100K views per month.
Non-Acceptable Uses:
- Distributing files in ANY manner including: selling, giving away for free, or as part of a package of products. That means if you buy an SVG of a puppy you CAN NOT provide that file to others for free or for sale.
- Allowing more than one user to use files to make projects for personal OR commercial use. That means if you buy an SVG of a puppy you CAN NOT provide that file to others to use in their projects.
- Convert fonts into different formats without written permission from the designer. That means you if you purchase an Open Type Font you are not allowed to create a split monogram font or turn it into SVG files without notifying/contacting the designer for their permission.
- Creating a digital product to sell/distribute which only consists of the letters/numbers OR design which CLOSELY resembles the item purchased/downloaded.
Corporate Use License
This license type is for multiple people in a household or company to use, unlimited sales, and the ability for customers (end-users) to customize products.
The same rules as above apply aside from the fact that you CAN use POD services as long as you adhere to the rules laid out HERE. To make a long story short you have to alter the design enough to use it in POD and you cannot use the original image OR have it such that the original image can be manipulated out of the product for re-sale.
You can also have different view levels for broadcast works, printed products/eBooks, and web based fonts.
Print on Demand Examples
It is a good rule of thumb to use the below examples to mimic what is OK and NOT OK to do when creating digital products. Of course it is BETTER if you create your own, but as I said above, some of us are not that skilled and are better at combining images for an end result.
Sometimes license types can be OVERWHELMING or CONFUSING. I always suggest messaging the designer BEFORE selling or creating a final digital product.
DB is always updating their licensing so KEEP IN MIND THESE TERMS MAY HAVE CHANGED. ALWAYS CHECK THEIR WEBSITE FOR ACCURATE INFORMATION. ShootingStarSVG holds no liability for people misusing the licensing terms based off of the reading of this blog post. You are liable for using the licenses correctly.
Please feel free to ask questions below or join my Facebook Group and ask away there! More than happy to help to keep you out of hot water.
Cheers
Tanya