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

[shedlord]

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-e...

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.

[Jill_C]

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. 

[shedlord]

“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]

“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 @shedlord

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).

[shedlord]

If we are on an "Unmetered Plan" and do a website for a client that includes a stock image, isn't that using "stock assets licensed under an Unmetered Plan" in a "client project"?
There's nothing there about using stock in client projects being ok as long as you modify it in some way. What you say is how it should be, but it isn't in the text.

We have been bitten by unclear licensing terms with stock libraries before so as a very small business we are wary of proceeding if we might get hit with the "sorry, you haven't been licensing these images properly, you now owe us X amount or need to move to a much more expensive plan" call further down the line.

[shedlord]

Also, on re-licensing the same image for use on a second client project, there seems to be no way to indicate this in the control panel. If the same image is downloaded twice, it only appears the original time in the history. For us anyway.

[shedlord]

ok, in the license history I see the little shopping cart icon that is for 'License again'. I click it and it asks if I'm sure that I want to license the asset again. I agree and it then downloads the file again. Nothing changes in the license history though. I would've expected a second copy of the file to appear in the list showing that it was used again for a different job and the date.