Hi all. Author ID checks for VideoHive Authors will be starting this week - this thread has all you need to know about the process.
What’s happening?
During January, VideoHive authors will be required to complete an Author ID check to verify the identity of the account owner. If you haven’t already completed an ID check, these will be made available on Tuesday 4th January, for a period of 4 weeks.
If you are an active Author with Video content as your primary asset type, you will receive an email notification with more information and a link to access your ID check.
If you have Video as your primary content type, but your account has not been active in the last 2 years, contact Envato Authors Help and Support to request an ID check.
We previously announced the introduction of Author ID here when the process began for new Envato Author accounts, rolling out ID checks to all ThemeForest authors in August, and CodeCanyon authors in September. We’re now including current VideoHive authors in this process.
What’s an Author ID check?
An Author ID check confirms the identities of our authors, requiring photo ID documents and a photo (selfie) of the account owner. This provides a trusted environment for our customers and authors to conduct business, and maintain the success of our community.
We work with Jumio to conduct these ID checks - one of the world’s leading end-to-end ID verification solutions. Your privacy and security is our highest priority, and we use multiple safeguards (technical, procedural, and physical) to ensure the safety and integrity of your data
We believe that these checks help to protect both authors and customers. Customers can have more confidence when purchasing items, and authors can benefit from knowing that they’re working in a more trustworthy marketplace - this levels the playing field for all authors in the community.
For more information, please see our Help Centre article on Author ID Checks - we’ll be keeping this up to date with answers to all frequently-asked questions about the process.
My account is already verified - am I affected?
Many authors have already successfully completed an Author ID check. If you have already received confirmation from Envato that your account is verified, you won’t need to complete a new check.
Why? What is the reason for this? You did not provide an explanation. We live in a time where ID information is routinely going into CIA and NSA databases, and our privacy being eliminated. What is the reason you now require photo ID?
Sorry to ask, but what do you mean what is the reason for this? On a marketplace selling digital goods that could have serious legal consequences if they infringe intellectual rights, this was something long overdue. Let me just state a few that reasons why verifications are a must.
Using false identities to sell copyright infringing material that could land buyers in serious trouble.
Using false identities to sell without owning a company and avoiding taxes, or using multiple accounts under false identities to launder money or avoid correct taxation.
Using false identities to sell from a country that is banned by international sale treaties.
… these are just a few, there are quite a few more reasons to think of, but these are probably the biggest ones.
If an author runs a legitimate company and pays taxes and does everything by the book as a legal representative of their company, literally earning the bread and butter from that business, and actually caring about what they provide, the 3 letter agencies mentioned shouldn’t even cross their mind.
On the other hand, a bad actor can be easily found and removed from the marketplaces, therefore, increasing the overall quality and safety for both authors and buyers.
Moreover, those 3 letter agencies you’ve mentioned don’t need Envato for data, that’s a fact. If privacy is your concern, don’t forget, there are millions of smartphones, tones of social media platforms and email providers, hosting services, and all other shopping marketplaces online that literally come to your door, where we regularly share our information on.
To add to this, Envato doesn’t store your data, neither does Jumio. This method is just used to cross reference the information the author provides for their account to their actual identity. At the end of the day, having a marketplace with verified users allows Envato to provide better services to buyers and at the same time protect us, the author community against bad actors, which is a win win situation.
@epatt1972, I recommend you research and read Jaron Lanier, who is arguably a genius and very active in identity, identity theft, privacy, the internet, and virtual reality, etc., etc., etc. The list of his accomplishments would go on and on. It’s a vast field of argument and Jaron is just a start.
The comment by @Enabled scratches at the surface of so many assumptions–both true and false–such that the only truthful answer to your question of “Why?” is that the answer and battle will not be won, lost, or found in this forum.
Perhaps it’s also a ‘red herring’ to begin with. The real answer is that those of us in the digital media business owe it to ourselves to know a great deal about all aspects of digital identity, whether it is digital rights management (DRM), encryption (it’s bigger than just bitcoin), customer and vendor privacy and tracking, types and kinds and flavors of identity tracking and verification, AI (which Jaron Lanier would argue is not a real ‘thing’), copyrights and copyright laws, licensing, fair use, personas, and so on. I think Jaron Lanier has argued that the only way to win the identity game is to not play along with it to begin with; but, people just can’t resist giving away their identity in exchange for some perceived value, and others can’t resist asking for proof of identity for their own self-interest and perceived value.
It’s an escalating negative feedback loop that an individual has no chance of stopping or deflecting.
Hi there, it’s hard to dive into all details. But what if an author (who was verified lot of times in the past) got some facial injury? And is still in hospital for recover? What if his recovery (lets say healing of recognizable details of the face) will take longer than ID check is allowed too? Thanks!
In such an exceptional situation, you’d also have a medical sheet to confirm this issue, and, this being an incredibly (and hopefully) rare case, Envato Support would most certainly deal with this manually.
For more information, please see our Help Centre article on Author ID Checks - we’ll be keeping this up to date with answers to all frequently-asked questions about the process.