NextPreviousHomeThe difference between FREE and ROYALTY FREE

michiel | 10 years ago | 1 comment | 7 likes | 2.8K views

Carlos Marques, persiana, mohkamil and 4 others like this!

Here's a boring, but important article about the difference between "free" and "royalty free". This is not the same and it is very important that you understand the difference.

Terms of use vary so it's important to read the license agreement prior to licensing, but the basic idea is as follows:

Royalty free means that after purchase, you may use the material for as many projects as you want without having to pay extra money (royalties) to the copyright owner.

You may sell/distribute your product that has been *CREATED WITH* the royalty free material, but you may NOT sell/distribute the material itself in its *ORIGINAL FORM*. This is a very important distinction. Royalty free material is copyrighted. It is not free.

3 examples:

1) When you buy a photo from a stock site you may use this photo in your own created video and sell/distribute this video. For example by publishing this video on YouTube and embedding it in this community. But you may not publish this show as a template in the BluffTitler community because this includes the photo in its original form: the JPG file.

2) When you purchase a BixPack you may use the template files to create as many video files as you want and do with them whatever you want. But you may not resell/distribute any of the BixPack files in their original form. When you post a 3D model that comes with a BixPack on a file sharing site or in this community you violate copyright.

3) Most BixPack promo videos use royalty free music from stock sites. We are allowed to use this music in the promo video, but we may not distribute the audio files as part of the templates.




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Very good explanation Michiel !

It clears up an issue, not always well understood.

snafu, 10 years ago

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About michiel

Michiel den Outer is the founder and lead coder of Outerspace Software. He lives in Rotterdam, the Netherlands.

If he isn't busy improving BluffTitler, he is playing the piano or rides the Dutch dikes on his bikes.

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Contact michiel by using the comment form on this page or at info@outerspace-software.com