Digital Resource Licensing FAQ • Inspirational Zest

What is a License Agreement?

A license is a legal agreement made between the “Licensee” (YOU)–and the “Licensor”. In the case of my license agreements, the licensor is me, Carrie Stephens / the creator aka: copyright holder.

The license is the legal permission for the USE of assets and digital resources under terms as outlined by the license agreement and will include details of the terms of use for the product, copyright information, responsibilities

It is your responsibility to understand your needs as an individual end-user and therefore ask questions prior to using a licensed product, especially one for commercial purposes. It also means you are solely responsible for maintaining the agreement. This includes:

Upgrading to a new license that meets your needs.
Reading and understanding the Terms of Use, including the limitations.
or discontinuing your license if your needs or use exceeds the outlined terms within the license agreement for the product.

How does A license agreement work for Digital Resources?

By downloading digital products, you acknowledge this act as a binding legal agreement and understand that all intellectual property under this non-exclusive license remains the property of Carrie Stephens Art, worldwide.

Carrie Stephens reserves the right to make changes to these Terms and License.

When does a license agreement take effect?

You are bound to a license agreement upon purchase.

What if I do not agree to A “Terms of Use”?

If you do not agre, don't use it. A license is a legal document, and by downloading or using creative work that belongs to someone else, against the terms is never advised. A licensing contract is not negotiable based on how you feel, your needs or your perceived value and expectations.

Not every product is created for every type of user, that's okay! In this case you will need to find something else more suitable for you, or make your own.

CAN I MODIFY CLIP ART or Design assets TO MAKE Them MY OWN?

Modifying Images to fit a larger concept, theme or design using graphics software is essential to success. This isn't custom art, you need to make design choices, layer, recolor, clip it to solid shapes, erase, mask and resize to suit your final purpose.

With that said, modification and transformation clauses do vary from creator to creator, if you have intent to modify the clipart shapes and colors within your designs and not just build a composition, you will always want to verify that this is allowable with that copyright holders' terms of use.

If you are modifying assets with the intent to sell them as new graphic assets, this is not allowed unless the work is in the public domain, has a creative commons license that allows it, or you have purchased a license that outlines permission for you to do this.

What about For CLIENT WORK?

You may create a design on behalf of a 3rd party client, providing you are not claiming work as your own. Your source must be disclosed so your client understands the licensing terms of the clipart.

Help! WHAT DO ALL THE LICENSING TERMS MEAN?

🛑 Hey! If you are confused or worried by terms of use or licenses, I want to help! Most often, it isn't on purpose and it's not you, it just has to do with not being familiar with all the jargon and terminology we take for granted that you understand, too.

I've compiled a list of terms that will hopefully help clear up some understanding or misunderstandings about clipart, digital assets, downloads and general digital product licensing a little bit better! Sometimes, it's just the foreign terminology used that creates the disconnect!

❔ still have questions or is there something I didn't cover here? Take a moment to contact me, let me know where or what you're hung up on and I'll see what i can do to help / add it to the list!

Glossary of LicensE Terms:

Terms of Use

A terms of use document is an outline of how you may and may not use intellectual property. (eg: downloads).

For Digital Assets, terms of use typically accompany a License Agreement.

License Agreement

A licensing agreement is a contract between two parties that grants a licensee the right to use and / or earn revenue from the property of the copyright holder—the licensor under the terms of use outlined in the license agreement.

The Exception: When the copyright holder has granted a third-party permission to distribute licenses on thier behalf, under one central, terms of use agreement. Eg: Creative Market

License Types

License types depend on the type of product and how or if someone can use it for their personal gain. The license will vary wildly from product to product, or creator to creator and it is your responsibility to understand the terms of use for the license, as well as the limitations the license entails.
Creative Commons License:
Creative commons licensing is standardized across the internet, Find all of the information about creative commons licensing Here.
Personal Use License:
A personal use license is self-explainatory. If you download a design asset that has a personal use only license (or you cannot find a license attached for your reading or purchasing) this means it is for your own enjoyment / use only, you may not make any direct or indirect personal, promotional, or monetary gain from the use of item.
Standard License:
If the product is
Extended License:
Extended licenses extend the standard commercial use rights, enhancing the scope of permissions in which the assets can be used, usage types and often reproductions or distribution.
Aka: Enhanced License.

Royalty Free

A royalty is an ongoing, recurring payment to the licensor, made based on the quantity of sales.
A royalty-free license agreement is another way to state there is no ongoing exchange of payments based on a term limit or quantity of sales of the end products, or that you can use the image in multiple different contexts without paying additional fees.
The opposite of this is Rights Managed: restricted to one project and certain quantities. Due to it's cost and limitations, this is no longer a common Licensing Structure.

Personal Use

Personal use of design assets requires that upon using them, you use meets none of the criteria for commercial use–as in making profit (exchange of money) or promotional purposes.

Commercial Use

Commercial use involves an exchange of money or any gain. This includes any promotional use or service. Direct or Indirect.

Non-Exclusive Rights

When you download or purchase an asset from a seller, unless explicitly outlined, the digital asset is non-exclusive.

This means, the creator of the original work is not transferring ownership / copyright but granting the single-user a right to possess and use according to the terms and license.

Non-exclusive licensing allows the creator to hold the rights to distribute and profit from their own work indefinitely and prevent the asset copyright being registered by anyone else.

Anyone who acquires a license before or after can also use the assets, according to the licensing they obtain.

Copyright

When someone creates an original work of art, their copyright / right to ownership is automatically applied.

A Copyright holder owns exclusive rights to the use of their work and can dictate how they are used and distributed unless they forfeit their rights to them, enter an agreement or create licensing contracts / agreement documenting the terms of how their works may or may not be used.

In the United States, as a general rule for works created after January 1, 1978, automatic copyright protection lasts for the life of the author plus an additional 70 years.

Licensee / Licensor

Licensor
The distributor of the assets. (In my case, me.)
Licensee
The purchaser / downloader of the licensed product is the licensee.

Flatten

Extract / Extraction

The extraction of a design resource refers to the ability to deconstruct a product to extract a licensed asset. In its original or modified form.

Layered Image

Static Image

A static image has been flattened, making it more difficult to reverse-engineer or extract individual design assets from within it.

Common Static image formats include: JPG, PNG, GIF, locked or flattened PDF.
Static images are the opposite of layered images: PSD, AI, EPS and unflattened, editable PDF.

Design Assets

A design asset (aka: downloadable resource) is a digital element, supply or tool that can be used as a component / piece of a finished design composition.
Design Assets include: font software, color palettes, clipart, vector graphics, pattern tiles, digital backgrounds, stock photos, shapes or brushes.

Intellectual Property (IP)

Intellectual property is a creation of the mind, this includes copyright, innovation, trade secret or process.

The copyright holder has the right to prevent others from reproducing or copying substantial portions of their intellectual property.

Sub-Licensing

When a asset with a single-user license is exchanged via a file or finished composition, in exchange for payment or to provide a service, without owning a license for the asset themselves, this is known as sub-licensing.

If the third party has any intent to sell a product created with the asset, it is highly recommended that a flattened file is provided and if they require unflattened files or wish to use the asset out of the scope of the license you purchased, they should also purchase their own license for that asset.

Be upfront and transparent: When using licensed creative assets, It is always required that the client or production partner understand that the asset is licensed to a single user, and they do not have permission to use it out of the scope of that single project since you would not be the holder of the copyright, it could potentally cause issues for the third party. It won't look good on you as a service provider, or your client.

Best Practice: If you create for a third-party, disclose where the assets came from, the licensing and direct them to purchasing their own license if there is intent to extract it from the original file.

Third Party

Production Partners:
Service Providers:
Clients

End-product

An “end product” is a finished good (physical or digital) produced / developed as the result of a manufacturing process or design activity, for a new purpose.

An End-Product may or may not be sold.

Supply Based Product

If your end-product will be used by someone else with the intent to create / manufacture something else using it, this is considered a “supply-based product.”

Design Composition

A composition is a work that has been manipulated and arranged into a larger creative work by putting together multiple assets, design elements or information to form a wider design purpose.

In simple terms, this is also known as: Spending time in a graphics software to “make it your own” original design in which that the digital assets cannot be easily extracted from when flattened.

Clip Art (Clipart)

Clip Art is a design asset (illustration) used to illustrate a concept or add a decorative enhancement to a wider design compilation.

Digital Papers

Digital papers are typically 12-inch image files (jpg) that can be used for printing, creating digital art, images or memory keeping activity within a digital software–Digital Scrapbooks.

Aka: Digital Backgrounds, Digital Scrapbooking Papers, Digi Paper.

POD | Print on Demand

Print on demand is a service that allows an end-user to produce end-products on demand with little to no advance overhead.
Some of the most common POD services: Printful, KDP, Amazon Merch, Redbubble, Etc.

Design-on-Demand

A service that allows their end-user to create or customize an end-product using the aid of a selection of pre-made decorative design assets.

The result from a design on demand service is: a custom end-product that they may purchase from the site, submit for production, or download the design.