We’re updating our Envato Market and Author Terms. Read on for a summary of what’s changed.
Don’t forget that these terms along with the Privacy Policy and other marketplace specific policies we have on Envato Market make up legally-binding agreements between you and Envato. These documents spell out your rights and obligations when it comes to Envato Market, including between authors and buyers, so you should read and understand them.
You don’t need to take any further action to accept the updated terms. The changes will come into effect for you on 1 January 2016. By continuing to use Envato Market after that time, you agree to the updated terms.
Feel free to leave your comments or questions below and we’ll get back to you with responses over the coming days.
For All Users
Envato Market Terms
Here is a summary of the changes to the Envato Market Terms. You can read them in full [here](https://themeforest.net/legal/market/5).
Expanded the reach of who is responsible to follow the item license, from ‘purchaser’ to ‘downloader’
Clarified the position that authors are responsible for obtaining model and property releases for appropriate items, and that buyers needing a copy of those releases should seek the authors’ cooperation
New definition and some references to Envato Companies
Updated liability and indemnity clause to reflect the relationship between Envato, authors and buyers
Inserted details around the refusal to process a payment, block a user or disable an account for various reasons, including to comply with certain laws and regulations, such as US sanctions and export control laws and the countries where Envato Market is not accessible
Clarified how Envato may use other Envato Companies for payment related activities.
For Authors
Author Terms
Here is a summary of the changes to the Author Terms which you can read in full [here](https://themeforest.net/legal/author/5).
Inserted some additional promises you make to buyers relating to basic consumer law standards like the item works as described and matches the description you provide
Expanded the reach of who is responsible to follow the item license from ‘purchaser’ to ‘downloader’
Added a promise you make to Envato and your buyers that you have and can produce your model and property releases for items that need a release
Broadened the scope of use of your item by Envato for promotion across all of the Envato sites and not just Envato Market
Your liability to each buyer has been capped to your earnings from the sale of the item whereas previously your liability to each buyer was unlimited no matter how much the item was worth
Added an information link to this post that has all the tax related information
From what I can tell, it means that previously, if a buyer downloaded a video of a cat; and it turns out it’s actually a dog in a wig and make-up, then he could sue you for ten billion dollars. Now, he can only sue you for $4. Well, something like that anyway.
Does this mean that a buyer of an item can come back at any time and demand to get their money back without any reason? I don’t know these rules too well, but where I come from the buyer has to come back within a period of 30 days, carry a receipt and the item bought must be unused. There’s also stricter rules when buying digital items. Are there any similar rules in that will apply for the buyers of Envato items?
Inserted details around the refusal to process a payment, block a user or disable an account for various reasons, including to comply with certain laws and regulations, such as US sanctions and export control laws and the countries where Envato Market is not accessible
You’re right, but this is about liability, rather than refunds. A refund has been, and still is, just a refund of the total price of the item.
Liability is more about an item wiping somebody’s hard drive which contained the only known photograph of some historical figure so they want one billion dollars, or they downloaded a stock video of a clown and they want to sue for emotional distress as there was no warning that the clown video might cause nightmares, or they downloaded a track and the levels were that high that it scared the cat and he jumped out the window and smashed his Ferrari wind-shield so she’s suing for the repairs etc etc.
I.e. it’s a good thing that liability has been limited to earnings and not billions upon trillions of dollars.
You say it’s about liability, but isn’t that a truth with modifications? Let me be the first one to say, that I’ve no problem with understanding your point of the case. However, in the end, it’s just a question if the band aid should be taken off carefully or ripped off. There should also be a limit or at least some guidelines for what’s the buyers responsibility, the authors and Envato’s.
Some questions:
What is Envato’s responsibility if similar cases like this occur?
What happen if an author don’t pay back the money a buyer claim?
How long will the author have to pay back and for how long after downloading a file, can the buyer come back to claim their money?
The buyer will, most likely, claim back the whole amount, what happens to the percentage of the amount that Envato has kept?
Conclusion:
There’s no doubt that Envato, anyway how we choose to look at it, has a major responsibility both for the buyers and the authors. As long as Envato has a way to control and accept and reject what goes through the review cue the responsibility should and have to be placed on Envato since it’s Envato who controls the nature of things happening at their site.
I am a bit confused about this. What does this mean now and how does it affect the terms written in this page:
mainly this part:
“For example, the author has created a 3D model of a Mercedes car. The car is a real-world product which the author did not create. Although the author created and owns the 3D model, they don’t own any intellectual property rights in the real car itself, Mercedes does. So it’s OK to use the 3D model for editorial purposes but if you want to use that 3D model for other purposes, you’ll need to contact Mercedes to get permission.”
I read the terms version 5.0 - I would like to share a couple of thoughts:
buyers and authors (sellers) transact with each other directly
I still don’t find the emails of all my buyers to contact them directly and offer to them more products, that’s what a seller does The only way to get their emails is when they contact me for support.
1# May somebody tell me how to contact directly to my buyers, please? I don’t see that setting in my account.
we cannot take responsibility for the quality, safety or legality of the items
2# You review every item before is available for sale here, but you are not responsible about quality? As I know, quality is a basic requirement to get an item approved. So, saying the opposite in the terms is contradictory. Thoughts?
3# Why Envato still get 30-50% of each sale if terms states they have almost no responsability for what is sold?
Although I am not an Envato staffer, I believe my contribution to your question may be helpful.
Buying software from Envato is no different than buying a toy from a large, multinational retailer. An example of this can be found in a leaflet from Australian Consumer Law. (ACL)
Unless the item you purchase is secondhand (used) you automatically get a one year guarantee on the product. According to ACL the retailer in this instance is considered the manufacturer if the real manufacturer denies all knowledge of you - the buyer.
Unless you strike a deal with the retailer (Envato) to provide you the name and address of the purchaser or the purchaser produces evidence during a warranty claim (an invoice or similar) from Envato, you have no right to know who the buyer actually is.
I believe Envato take all reasonable steps to ensure simple hacks and glaring anomalies like having backdoor’s into software exist and that it can actually be installed by following your installation documentation. I also believe this is sufficient to claim quality has been checked.
I am fairly sure at no point in a transaction do you get any right to receive a buyers identity.
Not a staffer but regarding #3, this is the same as selling your product anywhere else. They get a cut because your product is being sold on their site, simple as that. If you wanted to, you could open your own site and sell your stuff there, and keep all 100%. The distinction between these options being that you apparently feel that selling on Envato is better for you because of the exposure your item will receive thanks to their large user base, plus the lack of other costs associated with selling through your own site (hosting cost, domain cost, SSL certificate cost etc.)
I’d just like to mention that the decision to drop this news on 12/21/2015 for implementation less than two weeks later is somewhat suspect. It smacks of trying to rush it in while nobody is paying attention. Forget the brief period for review that less than two weeks gives people, the holiday season puts further strain on the time of people who actually like to read agreements such as this, rather than just trust your summaries that gloss over details.
What about the buyer who gets contacted by a third party claiming they are the legal owner of the work? So buyer gets sued for $100k in damages and their only compensation is a $4.00 refund? That sounds risky to me…or am I missing something?
Thanks for your comments! I understand the points you and @Alienjones shared.
I’m completely aware there are costs involved to keep Envato running. If you compare how business worked two years ago and today, many things changed except the commision for Envato. Every single update was in favor of the company, and many of them had negative effect in authors and even buyers.
Long story, I was sharing an old complaint and wanted to hear some thoughts.
Envoking Sharedom on the tree, from garage to the sea - but you lost your trail!
There is nothing to justify change in terms and relations in that harsh way!
Maybe you had an idea and a certain breathe to change the world. You are
like google, swallowed and spit out from the conditions. You
betrayed your ideals! I won’t bear your shittam! You are lost in grief Gargoyles!
I disagree to the new ToC, and PP, even after the use of 01.01.2016.
Because I have already paid for services above that limitation!
I paid my money and I will benefit from those payments, until the period is sailed.
So behave my dear! I disagree!
Beside of that: It is totally illegal to ship a change in the ToS with a “noreply”!
You have change terms and conditions many times this past 2 years.
I am not happy with one of that changes you maid.
When a customer buy an item with some terms and conditions, you can’t change them to something worst:
If one item purchased was with unlimited free support from authors, this support can’t become paying after a period… This is illegal in most occidental countries. You can’t do that.
What you can do is applying changes for items purchased after you have changed those rules.
Liability structure in the Envato Market Terms explained
We’ve had a few questions come through about what the changes to the liability sections mean and so we thought it might be a good idea to spell it out in more detail.
One important thing to realise is that the terms have introduced a capped liability position for authors, which is something some authors have asked for over time. We’re pleased to be able to introduce this liability cap for authors, but also to make sure there’s a “fair go” for our entire community by including some appropriate protections for buyers.
Liability and indemnity sections are always important parts of any contract and should be read very carefully no matter what you’re agreeing to or what side of the contract you’re on. This is because these sections tell you how risks are allocated between the parties to the contract and what you can expect if and when there is a serious departure from the promises made in the contract.
The recent changes to the Envato Market Terms at sections 51 and 52 bring Envato Market in line with industry norms. That is, the usual allocation of risk in many contracts amounts to the value of the contract (we call this a “liability cap”). For example, that means if an item is sold on Envato Market for $50, the most the seller is exposed to a buyer of that item is compensating the buyer for their earnings from the $50 sale or replacing that item. Now, in some circumstances that would not be a fair allocation of risk because a buyer of that $50 item might be sued by a third party for a lot more than $50. To account for this, there’s usually what we call ‘carve-outs’ or things that are not included in the liability cap.
In the Envato Market Terms, the carve-outs are specifically named in section 51 paragraphs a. and b. Those carve-outs relate to claims made by third parties that allege infringement of the intellectual property or other rights of a third party. Given the nature of the items sold on Envato Market, the main potential risk buyers will be concerned about is the intellectual property contained in that item. So, any claim by a third party against a buyer for infringement of intellectual property is carved out from the liability cap. Of course for a buyer to rely on this carve-out they must hold up their side of the contract. They must use the item in accordance with the relevant license and promptly notify the author of the third party intellectual property claim and give the author the option to control the defense of the claim (at the author’s cost). Only in those cases will the author indemnify the buyer. Also, and importantly, the indemnity only covers damages finally awarded by a court against the buyer or any settlement damages agreed to by the author. The second carve-out from the liability cap is if the author has made wilful misrepresentations about the item. Any other claims are capped at the earnings received by the author of the item. If as an author you respect others’ intellectual property and make only honest, reasonable promises about your item, it is more likely that your liability will be capped. (Remember we have lots of guidelines about intellectual property - see here.)
Please keep the conversation going and we’ll respond to your questions in the coming days. Keep in mind that we can’t give you any legal advice but we will try and explain the structure of these sections and how they impact you on Envato Market as best we can.
The only way to get their emails is when they contact me for support.