Building a Clip Art Library for Commercial Use

I read an article on your site about Adobe Photoshop, and articles on computer art. I'm trying to decide on how I would build an illustration library for my new card business without copyright infringement.

I stumbled across the Adobe site that has several designs I would like to use as back drops. It says that you can purchase a commercial agreement that would give you full rights, yet the artist has stated "purchasing a commercial license does NOT give you the right to redistribute or sell my brushes". I am not quite sure what she means by this?

Are there any sites that will allow you to purchase and use their images to sell your products, for a fee and also give you rights?

Jacqueline

Hi Jacqueline,

Aaay, the legalese is confounding to us layfolk, isn’t it?

What the Adobe site is saying about your rights when you purchase the brushes and agree to the commercial use terms is that you can use the brushes to create your own digital artwork but you may not sell or transfer the brushes themselves to anyone else.

In other words, you can use the brushes to paint or distress a photo or original drawing you have scanned and call that art your own. In this case, the brushes are another artist’s work which you cannot claim (and sell) as your own. Make sense?

As for sites which offer free or low cost images which you can use commercially, I recently answered that question for another reader in Clip Art Royalty Free Images: Artwork for Commercial Greeting Cards.

Eileen