In response to the demand of customers and continuous changes in the future, Playstock will be frequently updating our FAQs.
When you download footage from Playstock, you are purchasing a Royalty-Free license. Many of you will not be able to tell the difference between the concept of royalty and copyright. Hence we prepared this FAQ to fully help your understanding.
What does Royalty-Free mean?
Royalty-Free content means you don’t need to pay additional fees for repeated use once you have paid for the initial license costs. Royalty literally means the payment that has to be made every time you use certain work. So being free from royalty means that you are not obligated to repay for the footage you purchased. Of course, even after you made a purchase of certain footage, the full copyright ownership of the content provided by Playstock belongs to the contributor, the original creator, or the rightful owner of the content. What this site is selling is the right to use and utilize the content. All content is prohibited from being resold or redistributed. It is not the same term as Copyright Free, thus Royalty-Free content is not public domain and there are limitations on the license.
What does Copyright-Free mean?
Copyright means the right to copy. In a more expert way to explain, copyright is the legal right of the original creator. For example, if a person made a song, the creator has the copyright, meaning that he or she is the owner and only that person has the legal right to copy, modify, and resell it. Copyright-Free basically means that the work is free of copyright. It means that it is a public domain, and is free for anyone to use. So with Copyright-Free works, you are legally allowed to do whatever you wish to do with them.
What is the main difference between Royalty-Free and Copyright-Free?
The main difference is the ownership. Royalty-Free means you do not own what you’ve purchased, just the right to use it on multiple occasions. There are restrictions on how you will be using them, such as resale or redistribution. But Copyright-Free means it is free from copyright, thus you are free to do what you desire under the right conditions. Some of the original creators would ask for a clear attribution when you use their work, and if you follow those rules, you will be able to sell, create new work based on the original, or redistribute them online.
Can I give the downloaded footage to other people?
It is strictly forbidden to redistribute what you’ve purchased in Playstock. Giving work to other people is permitted when you have the copyright. Since what you are buying is the right to use it, it will be a violation of property rights if you hand over downloaded videos to others. If someone wants to use what they’ve seen from the work you made with a downloaded video, they need to buy it themselves on this site.
Related FAQs:
- What is the difference between Commercial Use and Editorial Use?
- Everything about Model/Property Release
