Important Changes To Our Exclusivity Policy

Today, we’re announcing some big and important updates to our exclusivity policy.

A lot has changed since this policy was first created. The customer base has grown, the author community has grown and competition has intensified. Over the years, exclusive authors have established well known item brands. More and more, authors are looking to diversify their product portfolio.

These are natural developments for a marketplace and mostly welcome ones. The playing field is very different compared to when we first started out and our exclusivity policy needs to reflect this.

Before we get into the details, why do we even have an exclusivity system?

Envato’s exclusivity system rewards authors who build recognizable item brands in connection with Envato. It’s intended to be a mutually beneficial arrangement. Authors who choose to participate pay a lower and decreasing author fee in return for making their content only available via Envato. It’s a way for authors and Envato to work together to amplify each other’s brand visibility and reach.

So, what’s changing?

Historically, our exclusivity policy has been item based and relied on the “sufficiently different principle”. For example, if a second item was sufficiently different to the first exclusive one, then that second item could be sold (or given away) elsewhere.

As product brands have grown to be bigger than a single item, this distinction has become more difficult to apply. So, the biggest change we’re making is to introduce the new concept of a ‘Product Family’.

What exactly is a Product Family?

A Product Family is two or more related items that are presented to customers as being related, usually connected through a branding or naming convention. Product Family relationships include, but are not limited to:

  1. Item Versions, e.g., MyItem and MyItem Lite.
  2. Item + Add-ons, e.g., a WordPress plugin and its family of add-on plugins; or a video template and modules of additional scenes/presets.
  3. Multiplatform Ports, e.g., MyTheme for WP, MyTheme for Magento, MyTheme for Drupal, etc; or
  4. MyTemplate for After Effects and MyTemplate for Apple Motion.
  5. Service Delivery Variants, e.g., MyTheme and MyTheme Hosted.

We’ve included detailed descriptions for each Product Family type as well as a few key exceptions in the updated policy. We encourage you to take some time to read these carefully.

Importantly, from today (8 August 2017) for all new items and the beginning of November 2017 for existing items, if you choose to make an item available on an exclusive basis, then this arrangement covers the entirety of the product line. Items from the same Product Family must all be available exclusively on Envato.

What else has changed?

In the policy itself, we’ve also added a section to clarify that your exclusivity extends to products and services by third parties.

For example, authors of themes sold exclusively on Envato cannot authorize external developers to create add-ons for those themes and sell them outside Envato.

On top of this, we’ve updated the following documents:

What does this mean for exclusive authors who are now breaking the new exclusivity rules?

The new policy begins today (8 August 2017) and will immediately apply to all new authors and items.

For existing authors and items, we know this is a major update and expect that some of you will need time to adjust. To support you through the transition, we’re allowing you a grace period from today. The policy will apply to you and your items from November 1, 2017. Exclusive authors should take steps promptly to check that they are in line with the new policy and start making changes if necessary.

Final Thoughts

We have always valued the choice authors make to sell with Envato exclusively. It strengthens the relationship between Envato and authors while creating opportunities for authors to earn more and grow their brand.

Moving forward, exclusivity becomes more comprehensive. From one item with one name/brand to multiple items linked together by the same name/brand. Product ‘families’ that help both Envato and authors grow together.

We’re committed to helping authors offer exclusive and unique Product Families across Envato. Envato Hosted is off to a promising start while Elements continues to pick up steam, both creating opportunities for authors to earn recurring revenue.

We think there are more opportunities out there for authors to expand their Product Family and we continue to build the infrastructure to make it all happen.

We’ll be actively monitoring this forum post for the next week, collecting questions and responding. Please keep the forum guidelines in mind when you post and hold back from calling out specific items in this thread. If you identify new items that are in violation of the policy (again, existing authors and items have until November 1, 2017 to bring their accounts in line with the policy), please create a help center ticket for your report.

9 Likes

Nice! But this whole thing is just policity wise.

@jamesgiroux How about doing an actual linking of the two(or more) items? I mean there could be some sort of selection when uploading the item and some directions to the whole product family. (Like collections but more cool and intuitive)

Oh!!! Oh! An idea! Also there could be inplemented an auto discount for some of the product family if you buy the main “Mother” item or a special discount for two linked items. Like “buy this MyProject item and get 30% discount for MyAddon2”

If I understand right, this has nothing to do with audiojungle authors.
Please correct me if I am wrong …

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I am totaly confused. !

i have a wc plugin hosted in wordpress.org and also a pro version for that plugin in codecanyon.

now i dont know who this applies. !

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You’re wrong! It applies to all items across all marketplaces. Make sure you read the exclusivity policy link at the top of James’ announcement.

1 question @jamesgiroux lets say i have a product exclusive at code canyon and to make my buyers want to buy and not download illegal copy then on my side i want to give some " free " addons related to that product at no charge but they must come on my server to download them for " FREE " by providing their purchase code to access the download zone. Those product wont be sold anywhere they are only bonus for buyers when they confirm their purchase code. is that breaking the rules ?

  1. Envato authors are permitted to offer add-ons to their own exclusive core items both on Envato and/or their own personal website only.
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If i understood spacestocks last comment correctly we can offer for example a html and psd version of an wp item free on our own website or we may not?

I see lite versions are permited to be available on wordpress.org but how about on our own sites?

Envato authors of WordPress themes and plugins are permitted to offer lite versions (a version with reduced/limited functionality) of their exclusive themes and plugins for free on wordpress.org.

Apart from these key exceptions, there are no other circumstances in which you can make your exclusive items (or related items) available outside of Envato without breaching this exclusivity policy.

So that’s a no on that one.

No. The reason you can give away add-ons on your own site is that they are just to enhance or add to the core item. An HTML or PSD version would be a stand-alone item (not requiring the core item to work), so you wouldn’t be able to sell or give them away on your website or any other site.

To use a gaming analogy… if your item is an PS4 game, then you can give away DLC for that PS4 game, but you can’t give away an XBox version of that game.

Keep in mind that I’m not providing ‘official answers’ as an Envato representative. If I don’t know the answer then I’ll keep my mouth shut and wait for the ‘powers that be’ to address it… but the instances queried so far are pretty clear cut when it comes to the stated rules.

I am asking if html and psd versions are considered a so called family? For example we do not sell html or psd versions on envato but offer them for free on our website. Is that alowed?

No.

Figured that much. I kind of tought thimgs are gonna loosen up. Now the main marketing tool is going out the window. Very nice indeed and all of these right before wp is about to hit on elements. We just brougth things up to speed after ADP, elements, refunds etc… glorious indeed! Hope Envato reconsiders on certain rules for our own sites.

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And you are giving us less then 3 month to change our strategy completly but Envato needed 6 monts just to implement a small css fix on tf and a year to implement a link for the psd popular list… amazing guys really… I really do hope for a bit more loosen policy here

8 Likes

So what do we get in exchange for this more strict policy? As you said “It’s a way for authors and Envato to work together to amplify each other’s brand visibility and reach.” - So far this move just amplifies Envato brand. We have no ways to track sales, to connect to our customers base (unless we’re trying to actively subscribe them to our newsletters), track our analytics in proper way etc etc. In return we have more limits from you and Elements banner all over the page to take even more customers away from us authors.

No wonder many of elite authors are actively looking for a ways to cut the cord from Envato

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I don’t understand any of that, can You make it in English please :slight_smile:

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AudioJungle question:

Let’s say I have sold license of my track to client (on freelance basis, outside Envato). And now I want to upload this track on AudioJungle. Is this possible? Of course after uploading I will stop selling it outside AudioJungle. @jamesgiroux ?

This is not true. We can’t change exclusivity of particular item and we’ve been requesting this for years, changing exclusivity affects entire account and all items. Instead of making something useful for authors, you keep ignoring our requests.

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  1. Do track names like “That Hiphop” and “This Hiphop” belong to one “product family”? (:sweat_smile:)

  2. Do i need to worry about all this if i never sell something outside AJ and all my tracks are 100% xclusive to AJ?

Thank you

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+9000

So what do we get in exchange for this more strict policy?

You get the opportunity to continue selling your stuff here. You can sign out any time you like. … - that’s what it feels like to me personally.