Pixabay Images Can No Longer Be Used For Commercial Purposes UNLESS Edited

Discussion Forums General Zazzle Discussion
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For those unaware, a while back Pixabay changed their terms of use, hence this update for your protection.

https://pixabay.com/service/license-summary/

pixabay terms.png
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They also state: “Please be aware that certain Content may be subject to additional intellectual property rights (such as copyrights, trademarks, design rights), moral rights, proprietary rights, property rights, privacy rights or similar. It is your responsibility to check whether you require the consent of a third party or a license to use Content.”

And via https://pixabay.com/service/terms/

  • You cannot sell or distribute the Content (either in digital or physical form) on a Standalone basis. This includes selling or distributing Content on a Standalone basis as an image, audio, video, NFT or other digital file (including through a stock media platform), as well as a print, wallpaper, poster or on merchandise or on other physical products.
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Need clarification???

Can you use it as an illustration for a blog in standalone format. We have never been into stock photos until we needed illustrations for our blogs, so we don’t know the ins and outs.

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You wouldn’t be selling it so I assume that would be ok.

Also any images downloaded under the old terms would be covered by those older terms. I can’t see when they updated these terms, however. 

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Thank you. 

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hey, @CreativeLeahG , thank you for the update!

I believe a good piece of advice when one is uncertain about using a Pixabay image is this: always send a message to the creator asking about it.

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I think they updated it in 2019.

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Wow, time flies doesn’t it! So scary.

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This has been the case for many years now. Pixabay was originally licensed CC0 (public domain) before 2019 and technically the images uploaded to pixabay before 2019 should still be CC0. However, anything uploaded since then has been under the license you mentioned above since January 2019.

Uploaders to Pixabay back then started to complain about people selling their images, not realizing that when they upload their images to Pixabay it will be placed under CC0 license and will have no restrictions.  The owners of Pixabay changed the license terms then and there was a big discussion about it on their forums.

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I’m not really sure what they mean by “distribute” but it’s my understanding that as long as you don’t sell the image it can be used on a standalone basis for placeholder images (with forcing customer to change the image) and store banners. I’m curious, is this how others understand it as well? Thanks in advance for any replies. 

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Hello

What about background images? If you add text with this image, is it ok to use?

Thanks

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Does this still apply? Can we still use pixabay images, as long as edited?

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I’m sure it hasn’t changed.

Colorwash's Home

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Instead, I upload graphics from Creative Fabrica and my own images ONLY!!

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Whenever using an image from a stock source, it’s always a good idea to make a substantial change to it, anyway.  That removes problems with copyright, and also makes it uniquely yours.  The exception would be if you are selling something with a vintage image or artwork, no longer in copyright.  Even then, be careful, because copyrights can go to heirs (Rin Tin Tin, Tarzan, etc).

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