Updates to the Envato Elements Licence and User Terms

@matthewcoxy, here’s an idea. If a user decides to unsubscribe, can that user be presented with the list of items from their respective marketplace and a message of sorts " If you’d like to continue using these items without a subscription please purchase an individual license here".

I think this would be a great idea. Say someone found their dream theme on Elements and decides he doesn’t want to use Elements anymore, but he still wants that theme. He’d have the option to purchase a license directly from the author and terminate the subscription, therefore owning a license for that theme and he gets 6 months of support along with it. I know this should be obvious, but an end-subscription message like this wouldn’t hurt either for users with multiple items downloaded from Elements. My 2 cents! :smiley:

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Hello, glad this conversation was brought up to the light, I am not understanding the terms either.
I want to make sure that I am following the license and User terms, but it is hard to comprehend.

I am a web designer and want to know:

  • If it is okay to use the Envato products for my clients websites.
  • If I can set up a catalog for my web clients to use if they decide to use the backgrounds, and items I have used from Envato.
  • Can I include Envato products in my web design products?

If these two questions could be answered, it would truly help me understand the terms more. It was confusing to understand because custom web designing is a form of customization, so I want to know if it is even allowed.

A last question I had out of curiosity is, If someone were to download a logo, could they make edits and sell it afterwords? Or does that still apply to the section in the terms where it states:

“For example you can’t print an image out as a poster and sell copies of that poster, as the primary value of the poster is from the image itself. However, you can print an image as a book cover and sell copies of that book, as the primary value of the book is from the writing/contents of the book and not the image itself.”

Thank you,
Georgina.

Hey @SoVeryAPT and @GunnarRoxen

The aspects of the Envato Elements licence that you’re discussing haven’t changed in the most recent update. There has not been a rules amendment around what you can and can’t use items for. The “future proofing” aspect of the license (raised by @GunnarRoxen) also hasn’t changed.

If you’ve downloaded a font from Elements and used that font to create (and finish creating) an End Product while your subscription is active, you are free to keep on selling that End Product long after the subscription has ended. You can also make tweaks to the End Product - for example, imagine you’ve downloaded a web template and made your client a website using that template. Then, a year later (after your subscription is over) your client asks you to add a new page to the website. You can absolutely make the change using the item since it’s still the same End Product (the website) which you created while your subscription was active.

However, If your client asks you to make a new website, you can’t use the same theme (since it would be an entirely new End Product).

@GunnarRoxen also raised the example of a book. An example might help to illustrate the terms. Let’s you’re writing a book called “Space Wars”, and you’re writing that book using an Elements font that you downloaded whilst you had an Elements Subscription. You licenced the font for Space Wars (the end product) then your subscription lapsed.

After your subscription ends, you can fix spelling errors, add new chapters make amendments as long as that work ultimately belongs to the ultimate End Product of Space Wars. However, if you’re planning on releasing a sequel (Space Wars II: The return of Additional Space) an advertisement for the book (like a poster for Space Wars) or anything which is a different product to what was originally described (Space Wars: the book), your license won’t extend to that. This has been the rule from the start - it wouldn’t be fair on our authors otherwise.

@Georginadangelo asked some questions about the terms too.[quote=“Georginadangelo, post:22, topic:104066”]

  1. If it is okay to use the Envato products for my clients websites.

  2. Can I include Envato products in my web design products?

  3. If I can set up a catalog for my web clients to use if they decide to use the backgrounds, and items I have used from Envato.
    [/quote]

  4. You are free to use an Elements website template to make a website for your client. Just be sure to register the template and that will give you the license you need!

  5. You can also include Elements products in your web design products. The idea is that your Elements subscription gives you a commercial license to the downloaded item so that you can use it to create something new a finished product (something new) that you sell to your client.

  6. You may need to give me a little bit more detail about your catalogue example before I can make a call… As set out above, you can’t just re-host Elements items for resale, so a catalogue to allow that use would not be allowed under the license. If you’re just including some examples in a catalogue which the client can then choose from in order to have you create an End Product using the chosen background or item, that would be fine. In that case, your catalogue would itself be an End Product that you’ll be using to advertise to your clients, so you should be sure to register your use of any item which you’ve used in creating the catalogue.
    The key point to make here is that if the client chooses an Elements item off that catalogue for use in the project that they are paying you to create, that project would constitute a new end product and as such, require you to register a new licence.

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@matthewcoxy, thanks for the clarification; however, one of your statements contradicts the license terms:

As @GunnarRoxen mentioned about the book, you mention that: "After your subscription ends, you can fix spelling errors, add new chapters make amendments as long as that work ultimately belongs to the ultimate End Product of Space Wars. "

However, the terms read as such:
(3b) “The license starts when you Register your use of the item and the license is only valid if you complete the End Product while your subscription is active. Then the license continues for the life of the End Product (even if your subscription ends).”

This is really annoying:
"Not Okay to use in: “Offensive content: This includes content that would cause offence to a reasonable person, including content that is posted for ‘shock value’”.
Honestly it’s still too vague. As such you have to define what a “reasonable person” is. This can be detrimental to you guys. Personally, I can run with it, but still annoying.

Lastly in the Acceptable Use Policy:
(4a) "It’s also NOT OKAY to use Envato or any of our sites or products to submit, post, build, host or otherwise make available any content that may contain, provide access to (eg, through links to third party websites) or promote any of the following activities:
Supply of regulated goods and services: This includes the supply of alcohol, tobacco, pharmaceuticals, medical devices, supplements, fireworks, qeapons, gambling or adult escort services.

First. I’m not sure what “qeapons” is… Secondly, to clarify, does this mean that we can’t use elements in promotion item involving alcohol for instance? or fireworks (seriously…fireworks?) Or am I misreading this.

Hi Matt_Sawyers,

On your license point, I’ve discussed that one with our legal team. In essence, if you finish the End Product while your subscription is active, the license will continue to apply to it. Minor changes or corrections after this point (which do not go so far as to create a new End Product) will be ok.

Thanks for your feedback on the “offensive content” point. Our community of authors have an expectation that their work won’t be used in a way that tarnishes their reputation, hence our imposing this restriction. The “reasonable person” test is a subjective test, for sure, but it’s one that’s pretty standardised in the legal world. We’ve gone with that rather than try to exhaustively define “offensive content” which would be its own can of worms. I can appreciate that this could be annoying to navigate but we’ve had instances of customers asking our help team to give them a quick ‘sanity check’ on proposed item use in order to get a bit of certainty that way. We’re always happy to help.

Qweapons are terrifying tools! :smile: But for real, re: Acceptable Use Policy, thank you for bringing “queapons” to our attention! :wink: We’ll change it to weapons.

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I’m sticking with Envato Elements. I was never under the impression that I could redistribute their product under no impediment whatsoever. Heck of a value in my most incredibly humble opinion.

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After a lengthy back and forth with Envato Elements support re what it means to “sublicense” an asset to a client, I thought the community should know Envato holds YOU personally responsible for the client’s misuse of the Envato Elements asset even if you make the client aware of the licensing terms and give them a “sublicense.”

They suggested I include an indemnity clause in my contract. It is not sufficient to tell a client you will sue them for damages if they misuse the asset and get you into trouble. It will still cost your company money to defend, it will still damage your professional reputation, and the client in question may not even have the money to pay for the infringement in the end.

The best way to avoid legal problems with clients is for the client to hold the license. A client can go to an Envato shop like photodune, for example, and purchase a license for the assets DIRECTLY. If they misuse the asset you won’t need to pay your lawyer to defend you because you don’t hold the license.

If an asset is only available on Envato Elements, I suppose the client could also subscribe to Envato Elements for a day, license the assets, then cancel. Feels unprofessional to me, but it is a work around.

Whether or not these cheap Envato Elements assets are worth the legal problems is up to the individual or company, but I thought the community should know (since the last time I looked it is NOT clearly stated), that “sublicense” or not, the legal problem is coming back to you if your client doesn’t follow the license terms.

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Hey @matthewcoxy, quick question:

Can I use photos from Envato elements in my Videohive templates?

More specifically, in my app promo template, I’d like to use a photo from elements as a wallpaper image for one of the phones.

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Hey @AmigoProductions,

You can in the material that promotes the template (like the video that demonstrates the item), but you can’t distribute the photos as stock within the template itself.

You can check out the full licence terms here:

Check the section around what you can’t do with the licence:

You can’t re-distribute the Item as stock, in a tool or template, or with source files. You can’t do this with an Item either on its own or bundled with other items, and even if you modify the Item. You can’t re-distribute or make available the Item as-is or with superficial modifications. These things are not allowed even if the re-distribution is for free.

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Got it. Thanks @matthewcoxy :slight_smile: