Today we’re announcing a few updates to our exclusivity policy to clarify the expectations and guidelines around product families.
The aim of our exclusivity policy policy is to protect the integrity of the shared value authors and Envato receive from working together to build product brands through Envato’s platform. As product brands grew to be bigger than a single item, we realized our original exclusivity policy was no longer serving its purpose. So, last year, we introduced the concept of product families to the policy.
The goal of the changes we’re announcing today is to further define what we mean by product family and in particular, how we interpret the exclusivity policy as it applies to related items. Nothing about the spirit of the policy is changing. Our goal continues to be valuing exclusivity through reduced author fees while also building product brands through our various marketing initiatives.
To begin with, we’re clarifying the definition of a product family as two or more items that appear to customers to be related, usually through a branding or naming convention.
In particular, changing the name of an exclusive item that still appears to customers to be related to other non-exclusive items with the original name or same brand will still be a breach of exclusivity. To further illustrate this point we’ve added a new example for item naming conventions: MyItem and [Item Formerly Known as MyItem].
We’ve also clarified consequences of breaching exclusivity. If an author intentionally breaches the exclusivity policy, Envato may require that author to change the status of their account to non-exclusive or we may make this change on behalf of the author.
If an account status is changed to non-exclusive then the non-exclusive fee will apply to that account. We may also apply the non-exclusive fee to an author’s account for the interim period between when we became aware of the breach until the date the account status change is effective.
So if i got it right, the cases when one sells items of the same category (e.g. royalti-free music) under the same author’s name and the same author’s logo on different marketplaces will be considered as a breach of Envato’s Exclusivity Policy?
An item doesn’t have to be the “exact same item” to breach exclusivity, and just changing the name doesn’t allow the Author to sell something wherever they want (and maintain exclusivity).
Similar items can only be sold on non-Envato sites so long as
they would be sufficiently different to the Envato item such that they would be accepted on Envato as a new item on their own, and
the item is not in the same product family as the Envato item. This is where items appear to be related (eg “Telephone” and “Telephone Lite”), or is a mere add-on that only really operates with the Envato-sold item, or is a mere translation/porting of the Envato item.
So to clarify: If I sell my items somewhere else (music tracks), which are not uploaded to AudioJungle under my brand (HoneyLoud) and my logo, and I never want to upload here, but I want to sell under name HoneyLoud and with the same logo, that`s not a violation. But if I sell my items anywhere else under my brand and logo, which are uploaded to AudioJungle, that is a violation against Envato’s policy.
Sorry that I’m asking something twice, but better twice than a mistake
And one other question, exactly which websites are the exception? I mean those sites which offer personal listening, like iTunes how I read the policy.
Thanks for your reply, James. And what if that item is actually being sold
through Envato (along with other marketplaces), but is available on a
non-exclusive account, although the author has exclusive one too which
bears similar name and same logo? Would it be considered a violation? In
this case, the items the author sells on his exclusive account may appear
similar to the ones (different ones of course) being sold on a non-ex
account because of similar branding (same logo and similar author’s name).
I do not see the Policy to take place to everyone.
Why @jamesgiroux you do not apply to everyone?
I still see theme provider with selling the same theme item with different name to have exclusivity and the product who started that, to still have exclusivity.
Is it true? Does that apply only to the weak and you leave those that make revenue with no impact?
If you can figure out a way to check nearly three million items at regular intervals, then I’m sure Envato would love to hear your suggestion. In the meantime, if you see an item or an author that isn’t playing by the rules, feel free to contact support.
I have to do it?
When there is a new policy, out of my mind I can get two different providers, who are named here also.
Are you serious now? Excuses can come, if someone does not want to take action.
You don’t have to do it, no. But I think it’s mildly important to understand that it’s not an easy thing to monitor… so it doesn’t mean Envato are incompetent just because they miss one, ten, a hundred or even thousands of files out of the three million on the site.
And just because somebody is breaking a rule, does not mean that the rule does not exist… or that it only applies to certain people.
And again, after 15 days of a rule published - you would wait to see things taken action and into consideration, especially when you know who is doing what.
He means that 15 days after this announcement, the item that triggered this announcement, Visual Composer, still does not have their item name changed. The point is not about checking 3 million items, it’s at least starting with the one item that blatantly triggered the policy change.
EDIT: Above not the case as pointed out by @SMARTPlugins – Thanks mate!
