Licensing (TOU)

At Pixel Scrapper we have two licenses: Personal Use, and Commercial Use. These licenses are intended to be as simple and freeing as we can make them.

Personal Use License

This license actually covers all non-commercial use.

Please Do:

  • Use the item however you want for personal use!
  • Use the item for any non-profit, non-professional purpose (flyers, yearbooks, non-profit posters, etc.).
  • Adapt and remix the item, then post or give away the resulting adaptations for non-commercial use (as long as you do so for free, and you are not a professional designer).
  • Attribution is not required!

Please Do Not:

  • Use the item for commercial purposes (anything where you make money, or attached to your profession).
  • Distribute the item "as is" directly to others (refer them to the item's page instead).

Derivative Works Licensing:

  • Derivative works may be distributed under any non-commercial use license of your choice.

Commercial Use license

This license covers any commercial or professional use of an item, or any use which generates income or profit. Professional designers should use this license for anything they distribute, including freebies.

Please Do:

  • Use the item in commercial layouts, designs, etc.
  • Adapt and remix the item, then sell or give away the resulting adaptations.
  • Use the item on physical products like mugs, shirts, etc. which you sell.
  • Attribution is not required (though always appreciated)!

Please Do Not:

  • Resell or distribute the digital file “as is” without first getting permission from the item’s designer.

Derivative Works Licensing:

  • Derivative works may be distributed under any license that you choose.

A bit of explanation

I have often been intimidated when trying to navigate through all the different licenses and limitations imposed by various designers. Of course no one wants their work to be stolen, or abused, but reading through lists of complicated restrictions generally makes me feel like I am already a guilty criminal, which means that I often end up forgoing a purchase that I was planning to make for fear that I might forget how I am allowed to use the item in question! All this is to say that at Pixel Scrapper I am committed to keeping the licensing as simple and freeing as I possibly can.

Even so, licensing always seems to get trickier than one intends. So if after reading the directions above, you still feel confused, ask yourself these questions:

  1. Do I think that what I am doing is a reasonable use of the item in question, under the given license?
  2. Am I am reasonable person?
  3. Is the designer a reasonable person? (at Pixel Scrapper I hope the answer will always be “yes”!)

I am perfectly willing for you to decide if you think what you’re doing constitutes fair usage under the guidelines I’ve laid out. If you can sleep at night, then I can too. The honest fact about copyright issues is that bad people will do bad stuff and good people will do their best to be reasonable. I’m not interested in punishing the good people for the schemes of the bad people. I’m not interested in playing police. I’m interested in creating and sharing stuff. So I’ll leave the policing to you. You can of course contact me if you need to, but know that I’m far more reasonable than you are probably imagining in your head, and you should probably just imagine me saying “yes” to your inquiry.

Example: above it says “do not resell or distribute the item as is,” but in reality I don’t even mind that when done reasonably: just contact me about it first. I probably wouldn’t appreciate it if someone took everything I’ve ever made and tried to sell it all "as is," but then that would be a bad person, and I prefer to focus on the good people; again: I’m not going to restrict your reasonable usage because there’s a bad person lurking out there, and I don't want you to feel like a criminal while reading my terms of use.

Let's end with a nice quote from Benjamin Franklin:

That, as we enjoy great advantages from the inventions of others, we should be glad of an opportunity to serve others by any invention of ours; and this we should do freely and generously. - Benjamin Franklin

Best wishes to all you scrappers and designers out there!

- Marisa Lerin
PixelScrapper.com
September 2012