New Commercial Use TOU and CU Freebie

I don't know how to start this post...Hmmm...maybe I'll just begin with the gist: I'm changing my Commercial Use (CU) Terms of Use (TOU). Some of you may have been here last August 1 when I started giving away CU freebies. The first one that I gave was this grab bag and here are the contents of the bag.

As I go on with giving freebies and selling some items, there are some realization and I guess, it's time for me to change my TOU for your protection and mine. When I made my TOU, I stated mine as follows:

These digital art files may be used for personal and commercial use (CU) as well as for your Scraps-for-Hire/Others (S4H/O) projects as outlined below:

They MAY be

~used by hobbyists and professional digital-art designers to create their own digital art products such as website designs, digital scrapbook papers, shapes, templates, and elements.

~ altered with respect to color, size or by adding to or removing from them or use them in their original form.

~used by hobbyists and professional crafters to create their own handmade crafts such as scrapbooks, bookmarks, greeting cards, or other paper based products for sale, provided it will not be for mass production of more than 300 pieces for one product (ex. one bookmark design can be distrubuted for 300 pieces or less--no more than that).

~used for your digital scrapbook kits (for sale and for freebies) and any related digital scrapbooking projects where you can earn profit (S4H/O). Your digiscrap kits when sold to customers can also be S4H/O friendly.

I only have two restrictions:

They MAY NOT be

~ uploaded “as is” in any clipart gallery for others to download nor to be uploaded in 4shared, mediafire, etc. for the purpose of distribution--either for personal or commercial use. I sold them to you as CU products and they cannot be sold in it’s original form as CU items. They must be used in creating digiscrap kits as well as those stated above. If they will be used for S4H/O projects, they must be given to customers flattened--jpeg/png.

~used for any layout/project promoting any form of blasphemy, pornography, obscenity, discrimination, or any immoral or illegal activity.

In addition I also stated there that "credit will not be required but very much appreciated."

As I was reading Jean Hertz (aka scrapdoctor) TOU, I read there a very interesting portion--she required credit so that others may not think they have pirated the stuff from her or vice versa. That made me think deeply. I realized that's the right thing to do. My stuffs had been pirated before and I just kept quiet about it (I just wrote to 4shared to remove the items.)

Now, as I would want to use the items that I have given as commercial use freebies for my new kit, I saw that somebody is giving it already as a freebie. I downloaded the stuff to see if I got credited for it. I'm not. Well, what do I expect, I did not include that in my TOU. Anyway, maybe some people just forget, as I also do sometimes. That's why there were times, I have to pull-out some items that I uploaded at 4shared and re-upload them as I have forgotten to thank some people in my TOU.

Maybe I just became too assuming as Kimberly Bartlett (fishinmomdesigns) told us (her Creative Team members) before that if we are going to make a kit, always give credit whom credit is due even if it is not required, it's just common courtesy. That's why I make sure to give credit to whom credit is due even to those commercial use items that I bought and some membership clubs that I joined.

I don't mind not being given credit. In the first place, if I wanted to I could have included that in my TOU. However, I'm in a very difficult situation right now. The person giving the freebie has this on her TOU: "My elements are either scanned or extracted from photos that I took with my digital camera..." That statement bothered me a lot. If it were not for that sentence, I will not be affected, who cares? As I said I don't mind not being given credit but this is another issue--it gives the impression that she's the one who photographed/scanned and extracted the element. Most of you knows how much time it takes to extract objects from photographs. Now, here's my proof, I took that photo of that cupcake from my niece's 7th birthday last July.

Maybe that's unintentional. Maybe the person just forgot to remove that line from her TOU. Maybe the person have just forgotten to include me in her credit as she included some other designers there. But that sentence did not only hurt me but also those who downloaded my commercial use items and are about to use them as well, especially ADSD members where I'm a part of. Will they be branded as pirate because somebody said she photographed/scanned them and is giving it as a freebie for Personal Use and S4H/O only? If you see that first in her blog, then, you'll see that in other people's kit, what would you think? That we are using her stuff in our kit when it is not given as commercial use item? In the first place, it is originally a commercial use product. That's unfair for all of us.

So, now you know my dilemma. Maybe I have been so lenient with my TOU. So, to protect those who also downloaded all other CU freebies and would want to use them in their projects as well as to protect myself--for I am about to use one of my items for my next kit--and some of you might acuse me of pirating someone else work when in the first place, it's mine. Hence, to avoid the confusion, a revision to the TOU is necessary as follows:

Credit required so that if you use the items or someboby else’s who also bought them do, people will not think that I pirated them from you or you pirated them from me.

This supercedes my old TOU so if you have downloaded the following last August including my Grab Bag, kindly replace your TOU to a new one.

You can click my new TOU and "save as" (it will become bigger) to replace the old TOU.

or you can get this freebie with the new TOU and replace the old one. God bless.

Sorry, the links are no longer available