I just had to disable design migration and you might have to too

[KeegansCreation]

On the Sell tab there is an announcement that Zazzle is beta testing digital downloads on some specific card and invitation types. There is a market for it and a customer demand for it, as documented in these forums.

This is great news for people who use all their own artwork and want to sell this way. However if, like me, you bought some POD-approved clip art from Creative Fabrica and/or Design Bundles (both of which sell clip art you can put on POD products unchanged for only a slight markup from their regular prices) that clip art comes with one huge caveat. You are absolutely not allowed to sell a digital download. That is strictly forbidden. You can put that clip art on any POD product but the customer may only buy it on a physical product. Selling it digitally is off the table. If you bought clip art, check your license and you'll see. There is not one single clip art sales company that allows digital resale- products only.

Ok, cool. I'll just opt out. And that's do-able. Zazzle says you opt out by disabling Design Migration in the Advanced Settings of your store and do it by Oct 31. But I like design migration. 😟 It's how my designs get auto-migrated to new iterations of products. But if I leave it on, I auto-break the license terms of the clip art I bought even if I only put it on a few invites/cards.

A questions for the mods:

• If I opt out of design migration (I just did, I had to) can I opt back into it after this has auto-migration has happened? I'd like to have design migration enabled but doing so before auto migration will break the terms of licenses I bought. If yes, when can I opt back in without having my products auto migrated to digital download? Nov 1? Or later?

[AugieDoggyStore]

I just checked. Yes, you have to opt in if you want to allow digital downloads. I'm pleased that Zazzle has done it this way. 👍

[buxmontweb]

Be careful. I thought it was opt-in too. The first time I opened the advanced settings page, the box to allow migration for digital downloads was not checked. I did NOT check it or make/submit and other changes on the page, but when I looked at it a second time it was automatically checked, some time after the first time I looked at it.

[Barbara]

It's a day layer, and mine is still not checked. However, standard migration is turned off in my settings. Is it turned on in yours?

What's interesting is that it seems to be all or nothing. Migration, as far as I know, has always been for those somewhat rare instances where a product has been discontinued and then a replacement has been found for it. Some years back, we all had something akin to this happen with wrapping paper. Our original gift wrap designs were migrated to the new paper and the new ones were hidden so we could look them over to see if they'd transferred well before we made them public.

Colorwash's Home

[buxmontweb]

I still had/have standard migration turned on - maybe that was the difference. I didn't see the notice about digital downloads until after the separate digital migration block was already in place, so I left standard migration turned on.

[Cat]

Hmmmm.... very interesting. I've never seen these settings before but both of mine were checked by default - meaning I would have to un-check them to opt out. I wonder what it means...

[Mistica]

Thank you. Where is it on the advanced wettings page? What is the verbiage? I see a store section as far as what shows.

[Barbara]

Once on the Advanced Settings page, scroll down until you see an orange box. The choice to opt in is inside that box.

Colorwash's Home

[Colorflow]

I am still not 100% clear on how we pick individual designs and not all for digital download.  But I think it was explained that we have that option.

Will we have the option to edit the design first? As some mentioned, not all designs are approved to be sold digitally unless flattened or combined with other graphics.   I would like the option to recreate and change the design to make it ok for digital download.   We received an email that this product edit feature may be turned off during the holiday time to allow the team to focus on customer service.  

I also agree that the customers should not be allowed to download the design without text and that the edits should be made on Zazzle before the download.  

[SageDesigns]

Hi!  Referencing the license on Creative Fabrica specifically, this new digital download feature from Zazzle is allowable for those who use their graphics.  Just wanted to share the info I found from the section of their license addressing digital end products.  Also, I wanted to share the license link too; they have a great photo reference as well for allowable digital usage!

Subscription License - Creative Fabrica

“Digital End Products

Below, you will find examples on how to use your downloads for Digital End Products. A Digital End Product is a product in a digital format that is intended for sale to multiple people (for example a wedding invite template). Creating a logo or a website for 1 client is not considered an end product and is fully covered under this license.

The Dos and Don'ts when creating digital end products.

You are allowed to

Use elements to create a new design. For example, you are allowed to use floral elements to create a floral themed wedding template. 

Create new designs combining multiple downloaded resources and adding items of your own, as long as the new design is flattened and the original items cannot be extracted.

You are not allowed to

Create end products that compete with the original product. For example, you cannot bundle multiple designs and sell that as a new product, or simply change basic elements such as color and size and sell that as a new product.

You cannot sell in a way that is directly competitive with the original item that you downloaded. For example, you cannot grab a resume template, change the elements and sell it as another resume template.

Create a digital product that includes single elements or allows users to extract the elements that you've used (all designs must be flattened).”

[KeegansCreation]

I think the key phrase here is "cannot be extracted". If you bought POD approved clipart and used it as-is (which is allowed) then a customer who gets a digital file of that design can extract it pretty easily unless you have put other things on top of it so part of it is obscured. A watercolor flower that is flattened onto a background and has nothing on top of it is easily extractable despite being flattened. Then the customer has essentially bought the same thing you bought except from you rather than from CreativeFabrica. That's what they are trying to prevent.

[SageDesigns]

Hi,

The digital download provided by Zazzle will be flattened.  Meaning individuals items cannot be extracted, such as downloading a package of images with individual graphics.  In order to "extract" an item, a background remover tool would have to be used, isolating the graphic in question.  However, this can be done already.  Two ways: using a high quality image of the design shown on the screen, it can be uploaded into almost any available tool online (photoshop, adobe images https://www.adobe.com/express/feature/image/remove-background ) and second, by buying a single copy of a printed design, scanning it in to the computer and then going through the mentioned image isolation process.  So it is equally as likely that either the physical product or digital product can be exploited.

I have scene instances on Etsy where the clipart available on, for example, Creative Fabrica is used to create digital downloads like invitations using a tool like Corjl.

As long as the guidelines in the license are followed, again using Creative Fabrica as an example, it is completely allowable to use the graphics.  As long as the guideline for the Don't "Create a digital product that includes single elements or allows users to extract the elements that you've used (all designs must be flattened).” is followed the graphics can be used and digital products sold.  If the design has two or more elements (overlapping or not) and is flattened (as the downloads on Zazzle will be) everything thing should be good for legality of use.

Abby

[Cat]

I don't license other people's artwork, so I can't speak to what is and isn't allowed under those licenses, but in terms of "flattening" the issue as I see it is that the customer can use the design tool to download as many different versions of the product as they like.

So, say you've used 3 different pieces of artwork on an invitation. Unless you've combined them with the other elements/backgrounds in the file that you uploaded, or locked them in the design tool, then the user could go into the design tool, delete everything but one image - re-size that image to fill the screen, and download just that image. Then they could just do the same thing for each image on the invite.

I think they'd have a white background rather than being cut-out, so maybe that counts as "flattening" I don't know, but that's the issue as I see it.

Of course, they can do the same thing now with screen captures, though they wouldn't be high resolution. As I said, I haven't read the license you're referencing, so take this with a grain of salt, but that would be my concern.

[SageDesigns]

The issue that you mention is a problem with any product that could be created on Zazzle currently.  For example, if you do not have permission to use an image by itself and need to combine it with additional pieces of artwork, it is the creators responsibility to ensure that the customer cannot separate the images individually.  Like as you mentioned deleting two out of the three images used and resizing the one for something, lets say a t-shirt.  This would violate the usage guidelines you agreed to upon using the artwork.  

Taking the guideline for usage digital usage from Creative Fabrica for an example,  "Don't create a digital product that includes single elements or allows users to extract the elements that you've used (all designs must be flattened)."  You need the final product to have to elements (graphics, text, background, etc).  As you mentioned, you would need at least two of the graphics to be locked and unable to be deleted for the design to be legal for you to sell.  Now lets say you have created a digital card with a white background, one authorized graphic on the left and one authorized graphic on the right.  Neither graphic touches the other.  Neither graphic can be deleted. The customer purchases the file and receives a flattened download.  In this instance, their is no legal violation of the license for usage of the clipart.  

If the customer decides to go through the steps of cropping the download and using a background remover to obtain a PNG of the image, (can be done with any color or texture of background) that is not something, as a creator, you are legally liable for under the Creative Fabrica license.  Just as you would not be liable for the customer purchasing a printed version of that card, scanning it into the computer and going through that same process.

It is definitely a real issue with designs in general, I know many have had their work stolen.  However, it does not eliminate designers who use purchased graphics (with licensing allowing the usage) from selling Zazzle's upcoming digital downloads if that is something they choose to do.

Abby

[KeegansCreation]

Anywhere I used purchased clip art I lock the design tool to prevent such shenanigans. But if they can buy the actual file as a digital download then it is very extractable even if flattened. So I've opted out. I may opt in individual things that use no purchased clip art at a later point.

Maybe it's possible (but I think unlikely) that the digital downloads wouldn't violate the license. That's not a gamble I'm willing to take.

[Shakenbake]

Also, they do not want you selling files like in format .psd .ai etc as digital form (Honestly I think selling Canva templates also violates this term if the objects are moveable and not a flattened bg.) Flat JPEG/PNG or flattened (No layers) PDF only, but yeah you have to do some work to make the items into a new design. 

[igiftcenter]

The one thing you have to be careful with licensed content:

make SURE you make a screenshot or photo of the terms to save for later because...
what if three years later the designer changes their mind and no longer wants their 
products to be available for digital downloads / licensed for use?  Three years later they could suggest you are using their product without their permission.... you'd better save the original licensing information.

Just a  heads up

[KeegansCreation]

Oh I do. One thing I've done with some (but not all, I got sloppy) is screencap the license, put it on a layer in the design tool, hide the layer and then lock the design tool. Then it's easily accessable to me.

[Caprice]

Genius! 👍🏼👍🏼

[GraphicAllusion]

Just a heads up. If you decide to opt-out and have more than one shop, you will have to go into the settings of every store you have published products in and make sure the Store Settings>Advanced Settings>Check Box (in the gold coloured paragraph box) is NOT selected. I thought this may just be an account-wide change, but see it was automatically selected in several of my shops so had to go in one by one to unselect it. HTH.

[MargPhoto]

It gave me the option to "Opt Out" maybe it's because I create all my products from scratch, I havent used any graphics sold on the internet

[SandyMDesigns]

I am not sure I like this! Especially designs which took me hours or days to design. How many people would respect the "Personal Use Only" license?

I can see others profiting from my images on their products. Then again, before this new download, Zazzle is now offering, I have seen designs I made on products that other people are selling. So you don't need to sell a digital image. The thieves will still be able to get it.

Before this, I also sold individual wedding cards. What that tells me is the customer possibly bought one card. They scan it to print their 200 wedding cards from the one they purchased.

Overall, a large percentage of our bulk orders will be gone.

If you bought images, as others have brought up, there is that issue as well.

I don't think I like this new change.

[emmasuebowtique]

If you use graphics from creative fabrica or others sites, you can sell digital downloads but there are some rules to it, but definitely not out of the question.  You can combine multiple downloaded resources and adding items of your own, as long as the new design is flattened and the original items cannot be extracted, so an invitation for example.. A digital download of an invite or graphic that meets those standards will be flattened and able to sell. You can't create digital products that includes single elements or allows users to extract the elements that you've used, again must be flattened. Now if you are using items from the POD unlimited usage license and not making them your own and only reselling the identical graphic you purchased, then yes you can not sell that item digitally. That is the only thing not allowed. 

[ameliacarrie]

What most of what I've been reading here seems to say as long as the customer is getting an invitation that is "FLAT" the clipart can be downloaded.  So is "FLAT" something that already is designed on Zazzle then sent as a .jpg complete, with no editing capabilities. 

[MargPhoto]

They can delete all the text and then flatten it. They will still end up with an image they can add text to on their computer.