Wednesday, February 17, 2021

Selling on TPT 101: The Basics

Selling on TPT 101: The Basics | Apples to Applique 
Welcome to Part 2 of TPT 101! If you missed Part 1, you can find it here! 
 
Today, we'll be covering the boring nitty-gritty stuff regarding fonts, clip art, and commercial use. This is the part that gets really overwhelming and confusing for people, but it is super important.
 
Disclaimer: I am not a lawyer and this is not legal advice. For questions, please contact an attorney who specializes in copyright.

To put things simply: You cannot just use any font, clip art, or photo for anything you want. If you are listing products in your TPT store, you must have a commercial use license for any elements you used. Yes, even if you are listing a product for free.

Fonts
Just because a font is installed on your computer doesn't mean you can use it commercially!
You can find many free commercial-use fonts on sights such as 1001 Fonts, Font Squirrel, and others. Note: Not all fonts on these types of sites are for commercial-use; make sure to check the terms of use for each one. 
You can also find many reasonably-priced fonts on Teachers Pay Teachers. Some sellers allow you to download the font for free for personal use so you can test it out, and then require a small, one-time fee to use it commercially.

Clip Art
Just like with fonts, you must have the rights to use any clip art commercially. Do not just do a Google search and take images from there! 
I get most of my clip art from TPT because those sellers understand the platform and how the images will be used. They also have the types of images teachers need for common lessons, topics, and themes.
Clip art can be quite the investment! I recommend starting with what you can find for free. There is a decent selection of clip art available on Teachers Pay Teachers that is free for commercial use.

Photos
Photos follow the same guidelines as clip art, but can get very expensive through the main stock photo sites. You can find images that are in the public domain and are free for commercial use; sites like Pixabay also have free photographs that can be used in your products.
Take caution of any photos showing people! The company from which you are purchasing should have signed model releases on file. (As a side note in this same vein, do NOT use photos of students in any  of your products or marketing!)
 
While the odds may be small that you are ever found out or reported if you use fonts or clip art for which you do not have commercial rights, it is simply not worth the gamble. First and foremost, there's the importance of building a business on integrity. I want to set a good example for my children and students and put out good into the world by doing the right thing. Secondly, if you are found to be violating trademark or copyright, TPT issues a strike against your store and you can face financial ramifications. So take care to do things the right way and it will pay off in the end.

We will end there for today; if you are excited to get started, you may want to start searching around for fun fonts and graphics that can be used in your future resources. Practice looking for terms of use (often shortened TOU) to see what the artist allows.

Look for Part 3 coming soon!
Keep teaching (and creating!) with heart and passion!



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