Legally transfer adobe stock to client

[Bárbara_a]

Hello, 

one of my clients wants to have all the Adobe Stocks I have bought for him. I did see one Chat about transferring the adobe license to a client which is allowed if the client is willing to sign contract saying he will respect the terms of Adobe. My question is now is a license and the adobe stock file the same? I do see that the terms of use says that a sharing of a standalone file is not permitted. Does this also include transferring to a client? Am I allowed to give a client the adobe file or not? Thank you if someone knows the correct answer!

[Abambo]

Check here for transferring a licence: https://community.adobe.com/t5/stock-discussions/transfer-license-to-a-client/td-p/11990240

The licence governs the terms of how the asset can be used. So the licence and the asset are not the same, but they are in a relationship to each other.

The licence transfer is a kind of business model. There are customers who want to licence an asset, but they do not how. There are people like you, who know how, and there is Adobe selling licences to an asset. So, to allow make everyone happy, Adobe allows you to transfer the licence to your client. The licence rules how the asset may be used, so without the asset, the licence is useless. In consequence: as soon as the customer has accepted in an enforceable way the licencing terms (or something of your own which is at least as stringent as Adobe's terms), you can also transfer the asset.

As for the sharing of the file: you are not allowed to share the file in the wild, i.e. without an enforceable agreement or to multiple licensees of yours without taking each time a new licence.

Does that make sense to you?

As my private addition to this: you need to be sure that the customer does not want to get rid of you. There is a reason why they want to get access to the files. If it is to use the assets in a different setting, where your expertise is not required or something else, you should know that what you did for this customer is your capital. I had suppliers in a similar situation as you, and we asked the material expressively to be able to include the material in different settings, where the original supplier (say you) was not the one doing the work for us.

To be more precise: it concerned a corporate video with all kinds of assets, some stock, some created especially for us, and we wanted to make sure that our shareholders could use some material in their creations when referring to us. We got a time-limited licence for this by paying an extra fee. The fee covered the copying of the data. That is also work that someone needs to pay for… Depending on the number of files you need to transfer, you should not forget that work, as it was not initially foreseen…

Look here for more information on licensing: https://community.adobe.com/t5/stock/links-for-licensing-terms/td-p/11366788
(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).

[Bárbara_a]

Thank you ever so much @Abambo That helps a lot!! I appreciate you taking so much time to answer my question!! I think it is an issue many of us have to deal with, and I really want to do it in the correct way! But at the end of the day, we don't want to be liable if the customer does violate the terms. I have a contract with the client that they will respect the terms, but I also wish Adobe would tell us exactly how they want us to do it. I would really hope @adobe provides a specific form guiding us when we transfer Licenses and assets to our clients, please.

[Abambo]

I would really hope @adobe provides a specific form guiding us when we transfer Licenses and assets to our clients, please.

By @Bárbara_a

Adobe tells you what you are allowed to do. Adobe gives the conditions. But you are free to put your terms in, and you are free to make your terms more stringent than theirs. You could also ask your customer to licence the assets for themselves. They can take a subscription for the month (monthly, against annual)  and licence all the assets they need and cancel the subscription again, or they could buy credit packs.

All options are open.

[Bárbara_a]

I did. Talk to a lawyer about this issue and he was not sure if any transfer of the original assets is included in the Adobe terms... as he would see it , it's when I use it and give the open file including the asset in my design... anyone from adobe could bring the correct and official answer here please. Are we allowed to give our clients the standalone adobe stock if they sign us a document saying they will respect the Adobe terms? Thank you!!

[Abambo]

Adobe will refer you to this: https://community.adobe.com/t5/stock-discussions/transfer-license-to-a-client/td-p/11990240

I'm not a lawyer, but this seems pretty clear to me. 

There won't be a different answer from an Adobe employee, as anything that this employee would say, would be a commitment from Adobe, even when they would be wrong or imprecise. That's why you won't find recent posts from Adobe employees concerning licensing, except to point out the link to the licensing terms.

You will have absolutely no trouble, if you assist your client so that the client can take the licenses themselves, however.  They can do so by acquiring credits or taking a subscription, probably on the month, not annual. If there are less than 10 assets, the client could even take the 30-day free subscription. Please cancel after because else, the client would be locked into a one-year subscription. You will need to check the cancellation conditions.