Can I use purchased vectors or photos with standard license to print on my t-shirt? (Not to sell, just for myself to wear it)

[natthawatj74725996]

I have a standard license to buy vectors and photos, and I understand that purchased items can't be used for commercial. However, I wonder if I use those purchased vectors/photos to print on a t-shirt (which only me to wear, not intentionally to make lots of them and sell), is that possible? Please advise. Thanks!

[Abambo · Accepted solution]

natthawatj74725996  wrote

I have a standard license to buy vectors and photos, and I understand that purchased items can't be used for commercial.

No, standard licenses can be used for commercial use, there are just some restrictions.

One of the restrictions is using stock assets to be used on items for sale or distribution if the primary value of the item is the image (posters, t-shirts etc.). So basically if you are distributing or selling the t-shirts you need to buy an extended license. If you are designing a t-shirt for your own use, or a poster to be shown in your own premises, you may use a standard license.

Please see here for the complete license terms (the link may also be found on License information and Terms of use | Adobe Stock !)

[Creative Cloud - only 1 c]

Thank you very much Abambo.

[Abambo]

You‘re welcome.

[Vikentijs]

Hi Abambo
so the primary value rule does not apply for the extended license?

[Jill_C]

That's not what he meant. An extended license is ALWAYS required if you intend to use the image in a product that you will resell. But you can never just resell the image itself, regardless of the license type you select. 

https://stock.adobe.com/license-terms

Asset may be used in merchandise, templates, or other products for resale*

[Abambo]

Hi Abambo
so the primary value rule does not apply for the extended license?

By @Vikentijs

The “primary value” rule is used to give you a method to find out how to determine the need for an extended licence instead of a standard licence.

When you want to determine the licence required for a use case, you first check if the use case is allowed.

Example:

1. You would like to sell an asset as your own? That is not allowed.
2. You would like to print the asset on an item you sell? That is allowed.

For 2, there are 2 use cases:

1. I'm selling milk, and on the packaging I print a happy cow. The primary value is the milk, so a standard licence is OK, if I do less than 500k milk packages. The primary value is the milk because the buyer buys the product because he wants to drink the milk. When the milk bottle is empty, the bottle gets discarded. So obviously, the milk is the primary value.
2. I'm selling a T-shirt and on the T-shirt I print the image of the same happy cow. I need to buy an extended licence because the standard licence is not enough because the primary value is the cow. If the primary value is the cow, I have merchandising. And with an extended licence, I can do merchandising.

If you now look at the licensing terms, you can determine, by reading those terms, if your use case is allowed and what type of licence you need. And if a licence type is not available for an asset that is needed to do what you want, it is not allowed. So the free image assets come with a standard licence and the extended licence is not available. That means that you can't use that for merchandising, even if you would like. An enhanced licence does not allow for merchandising, so you can't use such an asset for that use case.