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shedlord19391779
Participating Frequently
May 8, 2025
Question

Need some clarity on what Adobe have upsold us re Adobe Stock

  • May 8, 2025
  • 2 replies
  • 478 views

Hi,

 

We, a company, produce and host websites for clients, plus make some printed publications for them.

We wanted to move away from the previous stock library we used, for reasons of cost, and worked out that if we bought 2 x 40 monthly asset packages with Adobe Stock, that would cover our needs going forwards.

 

I contacted Adobe through the help chat facility to ask if it was possible to have 2 concurrent 40 asset packages with them for the same company. The answer was yes, but the support assistant (sales rep?) then looked at what we currently had with Adobe. This was 3 x Creative Cloud All Apps plus 2 copies of Acrobat Pro. He came back and said there was a deal that gave us unlimited Adobe Stock if we had 5 x Creative Cloud All Apps Pro for Teams. As we will need an extra CC licence anyway in a few months time, and the price of this (plus adding on one Acrobat Pro) was not much more than we paid originally for the CC plus the original stock library, we went ahead.

A day later I went to find out what we should do if we wanted to use the same image on 2 different client websites. The chat I then had (with about 5 different agents passing me around) led me to these terms and conditions -

https://wwwimages2.adobe.com/content/dam/cc/en/legal/servicetou/Adobe-Stock-Product-Specific-Terms-en_US-20240618.pdf

If you look at section 6 (D) it states...

“You must not (a) resell licenses to Stock Assets or (b) use Stock Assets licensed under an Unmetered Plan in client projects or permit your clients to use such assets"
When we log into Adobe Stock it says "Unlimited Images" at the top of the page, which I think means we are on an unmetered plan. So have we been upsold something we cannot use?

I'd be grateful if someone from Adobe could answer this as I'm not confident of the answers the chat support agents are giving us. Thank you.

 

2 replies

S
shedlord19391779Author
Participating Frequently
May 16, 2025

An update:
My detailed help ticket question to Adobe sat there for 6 days, then I received a reply that ignored the questions completely, quote:

"As you have contact us for Adobe Stock Credits .
I am providing you the link to purchase < Standard and Enhance Credit of Adobe Stock.
https://stock.adobe.com/in/enterprise-conditions"

The case was then closed by them as "resolved".
We've never really had to deal with Adobe support much in the past but it has felt like no-one we've interacted with at Adobe about this has either understood or cared. This chimes with our initial experience when being sold this plan in the first place. Our users were locked out and when we finally got through to someone who understood why it turned out it had been set up incorrectly. They then tried to up the price by hundreds a month. When we disagreed with this and pointed out what we were sold, they dropped the price back down again. The whole thing was shockingly shambolic.

Adobe - great software, awful support

Abambo
Community Expert
AbamboCommunity Expert
Community Expert
May 16, 2025

@Riya123 Could you help?

ABAMBO | Hard- and Software Engineer | Photographer
Jill_C
Community Expert
Jill_CCommunity Expert
Community Expert
May 8, 2025

My interpretation, (and I'm not an attorney), after reading the entire clause 6D is that you are being reminded that each asset license can be used for only one client. If you want to use the same asset for another client, you must license it again. Additionally, your client for that image cannot resell their license. 

Jill C., Forum Volunteer
S
shedlord19391779Author
Participating Frequently
May 9, 2025

“You must not (a) resell licenses to Stock Assets or (b) use Stock Assets licensed under an Unmetered Plan in client projects or permit your clients to use such assets"
I think that's pretty clear they are saying you can't use images in client projects at all if you are on an 'unmetered plan'.

Our clients don't get to keep the images, we do the printing or hosting of everything we produce. If they want them for something else we tell them where to go to buy them. However, this clause seems to stop us using them for anyone else in any way regardless. I'm struggling to get any answer from Adobe and we may be forced to (try) cancel what we signed up for, as we are still within the time window when that is possible in UK law.

Very frustrating though. Why would any design agency etc have any use for an unlimited plan that they can't use except on their internal company publications?

Abambo
Community Expert
AbamboCommunity Expert
Community Expert
May 9, 2025
quote

“You must not (a) resell licenses to Stock Assets or (b) use Stock Assets licensed under an Unmetered Plan in client projects or permit your clients to use such assets"
I think that's pretty clear they are saying you can't use images in client projects at all if you are on an 'unmetered plan'.

By @shedlord19391779

That's not exactly what it says. You can't take the original asset and send it over to the customer. You can, however, integrate it into a customer's website. That won't be the original-sized data file. That will be a downsized and eventually modified file.

 

You also can integrate the assets in a flyer and send the PDF to the printer company so that they print it on behalf of the customer. And you can send the PDF data to the customer so that they distribute a lower resolution file to their contacts.

 

You just can't sublicense (transfer the licence to the client) an asset, as can be done with the classic subscription (that you could also take in your Teams setting). And when you end your plan, you won't be allowed to use the asset again for new projects. But you will still be able to order reprints of the unmodified flyer if needed.

 

Another limitation is that you can't use the asset in merchandising, as you don't get extended licences with your plan.

 

Any other interpretation would render the plan worthless.

 

If, however, you want to clarify this, you will need to consult a lawyer specialised in that matter.

 

(Disclaimer: As always with licensing, this is my interpretation of the rules. I think they are correct and advice is based on reading and interpreting the licence terms and on fair use for both the buyer and the artist/stock company, but I cannot rule out that my interpretation is wrong. I'm not an Adobe employee).

ABAMBO | Hard- and Software Engineer | Photographer
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