Third-party material refers to content that is created by a third party that owns the intellectual property rights to that content. In design, third-party materials are used to complement a concept presented by a designer. Third-party materials include contents that are created by individuals or gen AI tools, such as photographs, vector graphics, illustrations, stock images, fonts, etc.
99designs by Vista allows the use of third-party material as long as it is used lawfully and declared appropriately and in an approved category. The use of third-party materials in logo, button/icon, and illustration design contests is not allowed.
When third-party material is allowed, it is essential to declare every single element used that does not belong originally to you, and this must be done according to the applicable terms of the license. Failure to comply with the applicable terms of the license will lead to strict penalties and potentially termination of your account and ban from the platform.
Types of third-party material
Defining the type of material will help you to assess if you are allowed to use the content for the client’s intended purpose. You may find three common types of material:
Proprietary material is owned by a party (i.e. person, company) that does not allow others to use the content. Licenses for this material are not available. The owner reserves the right to the material's exclusive use. For example: a photograph in an artist's public portfolio with all rights reserved to them.
Licensed material is created by a party or generated by an AI tool that offers others the right to use it under certain conditions. These conditions may be monetary compensation, attribution/credit to the creator, specific contexts of use, etc. For example: a silhouette of a bull on a stock image-sourcing website may be used for a fixed price.
Material in the public domain refers to material whose intellectual property expired or never existed. This content does not qualify for intellectual property protection, but there is also a very limited pool of them. When using material in the public domain, it is the designer's responsibility to check if the applicable regulations permit its use for the client’s purposes and in the client's country of residence. For example: a photo of a tornado taken by a public scientific institution (which is also presented as being of the public domain).
Assessing licenses: what designers need to know
Stock images (e.g. vectors, photographs), as well as the output of AI tools, are materials created by a party (or made available by a party, in the case of AI-generated images) that offers licenses so others can use them under certain conditions. As a designer, you must make sure you know all the license requirements and specifications of the third-party material you want to use.
As a general remark, when you are considering the terms and conditions included in a paid license, you should review some aspects very carefully, among which:
- the purposes of the license: for instance, does the license allow you to reproduce and modify the image?
- its length: how long are you authorized to use the image for?
- its geographical limitations: where are you allowed to reproduce the image?
- its payment terms: is it available under a subscription or by paying a one-time fee?
- whether the rights granted under the license are based on exclusivity: will you be authorized to use the image on an exclusive basis or not?
Many stock-sourcing websites will focus on royalty-free images. Generally, please bear in mind that this doesn't mean the use of the images is for free and/or for an open-ended period of time – instead, it usually means that users who purchase these images are allowed to reuse them multiple times in different contexts without paying additional fees.
Some of the most common types of licenses that fall into this category are:
- Free for commercial use, without attribution: This usually refers to material that can be used for commercial purposes for free and does not require the user to credit the original creator or owner of the material.
- Free for commercial use, with attribution: This usually refers to material that can be used for commercial purposes for free with the appropriate credit to the original owner/creator of the material. This means that the client needs to add, every time they use the material or part thereof, that it belongs to somebody else. Please declare this as "requires purchase", otherwise the client will not be able to use the material and you will have offered to sell something under false or misleading terms.
- Free, for personal use only: This usually refers to material that can be used for free but only for personal use. This means, for any non-commercial activity from which you do not intend to nor can benefit. Materials with such a license are not allowed on our platform, as you are legally forbidden to make a profit from its use.
- Free, for editorial use only: This usually refers to material that can be used for free but cannot be used for commercial advertising purposes. This material could be used, for example, in a newspaper or magazine, or a personal blog, as long as it does not promote any commercial activity.
- Creative Commons licenses: These licenses usually give creators the right to choose how their work can be used and distributed. There are many types of licenses falling under this umbrella.
In any event, whether you are presented with one of the above types of license or with any other type of license, please read carefully the applicable terms to make sure these align with the client's intended use of the image(s) and on our platform:
For example, some material is free for commercial use and no attribution is required, but the material must represent only a minimal part of a design sold as one's own, or be modified enough that it becomes a new design.
Another example is material that includes human faces (of existing individuals, or AI-generated or manipulated images, audio or video content that recreate the reality and can resemble existing persons and appear as an authentic or truthful reproduction), whether traced or photographed: depending on the specific circumstances, users of such material may require an additional licenses, a data protection assessment, or may be completely prevented from using it for commercial purposes.
Please note that, at 99designs by Vista, even if you have a paid membership with a stock image provider, clients must also purchase that membership to access the material you are using in your design. So make sure to declare these images too!
Please review our Third-Party Material Policy to learn more.