Note: This is a 2 part article. If you haven’t already read it, be sure to read part 1 first.

In part 1 we talked about various usages of items purchased with an extended license. In this part, we’ll discuss a couple of fringe cases that, after reading part 1, people tend to ask about, but it’s still worth clarifying.

If Item A is licensed under an extended license, and incorporated into a larger project, Item B, can Item B be offered for sale by Author B under an extended license?

As an example, let’s say I buy an extended license of a button graphic from GraphicRiver and incorporate that button into my WordPress theme. Can I sell an extended license of that theme? The answer is yes, as long as the original button graphic is only used as part of the theme, and not on its own.

We’ve clarified the regular and extended licenses to ensure that the original item that’s used in a larger project cannot be used on its own; it must only be used within the larger project. This is important for authors and buyers to understand.

How far can this chain go?

If item B can be sold with an extended license, does that mean that item B could also be incorporated into a stock item for sale, item C? Could that result in items C, D, E and so on, all using item A’s original file? Not in reality. That chain can only go so far. Remember, to sell it as stock, item B must be a larger project (see examples of what constitutes a larger project here). For example, a button graphic could be used in an image gallery for CodeCanyon. Technically, that image gallery could be used within a WordPress template. That’s where the chain stops. A template can’t be incorporated into a larger project and sold as stock. That’s as high as it goes. In all of our brainstorming, we couldn’t think of a single case in which the chain would exceed 3 steps.

Does our approach protect the authors of the original items sufficiently?  We think the balance is about right. First off, the vast majority of extended license sales are not for reselling the item as stock. Also, the extended license fee is higher in order to reflect this type of end-use possibility.  Authors can also now control the type of re-use that is considered “Limited Re-purposing” (a modification of an item for re-sale as stock).  And finally, there is only so far the chain can go.

We know some authors may disagree with this outcome, however if that’s the case you have the option to opt out of extended licensing altogether.  But we hope you won’t, as we have a vibrant community of authors who interact and build on ideas across our marketplaces.

We know that there are many other improvements that can and should be made to our suite of licenses.  We’re going to be working on some clarifications over the coming months.  While, due to technical constraints in our marketplace system, this won’t result in a radically different licensing system, we’re really hoping it will provide some much needed clarifications to our current licensing approach.

Questions?

I’m sure there’ll be plenty of questions as well as feedback. That’s why we’ve created this dedicated thread where we can discuss it all in one place.