Client resold sketch (redrawn by them) on Fiverr

[potsupotsupara]

Hi,

I am wondering whether I should report a recent client I had. Basically, my buyer paid for a 24hr $5 sketch from me and were happy with it, payment all went through. However, after this, I noticed a couple days later they had a review on their own seller page from someone who was happy with their commission – the image they posted on their review was exactly my sketch, but traced and colored. Does this count as plagiarism, and should I report them?

I feel bad because this client can potentially be a reoccuring client, however, I am not happy with them reselling my work (regardless of profit, I would still not like it even if they were losing money by doing this.) And even more so, their reviewer could have been my direct client, instead of theirs?

Should I report them? Or should I just let it go?

[marinapomorac]

Hi,

I am wondering whether I should report a recent client I had. Basically, my buyer paid for a 24hr $5 sketch from me and were happy with it, payment all went through. However, after this, I noticed a couple days later they had a review on their own seller page from someone who was happy with their commission – the image they posted on their review was exactly my sketch, but traced and colored. Does this count as plagiarism, and should I report them?

I feel bad because this client can potentially be a reoccuring client, however, I am not happy with them reselling my work (regardless of profit, I would still not like it even if they were losing money by doing this.) And even more so, their reviewer could have been my direct client, instead of theirs?

Should I report them? Or should I just let it go?

reselling my work

The moment they hired you and you delivered the ownership was transferred to them.

They purchased idea from you.

[kometbeats]

Well, I don’t know what the policies are on re-selling, but I’m pretty sure Fiverr ToS says that once someone purchases something they recieve full rights, so, if they do have full rights then I guess they can re-sell.

Again, I don’t know.

[mariashtelle1]

Hi,

I am wondering whether I should report a recent client I had. Basically, my buyer paid for a 24hr $5 sketch from me and were happy with it, payment all went through. However, after this, I noticed a couple days later they had a review on their own seller page from someone who was happy with their commission – the image they posted on their review was exactly my sketch, but traced and colored. Does this count as plagiarism, and should I report them?

I feel bad because this client can potentially be a reoccuring client, however, I am not happy with them reselling my work (regardless of profit, I would still not like it even if they were losing money by doing this.) And even more so, their reviewer could have been my direct client, instead of theirs?

Should I report them? Or should I just let it go?

Should I report them?

No. They paid for your work.

Reselling is not illegal especially if they paid for it.

If you don’t like it you can always add comercial licence as an extra to your gig.

[vickiespencer]

Reselling is not against Fiverr TOS, so it would be pointless to report them.

[alyonagrapie]

Reselling within the same platform does seem a bit shady, but I would say it’s fine in your case, because they didn’t just use your works as it is, they added to it. The way I see it, they basically outsourced you the first step of their job. You got compensated according to your price tag, they got the rights to use your sketch as they see fit.

[potsupotsupara]

Reselling within the same platform does seem a bit shady, but I would say it’s fine in your case, because they didn’t just use your works as it is, they added to it. The way I see it, they basically outsourced you the first step of their job. You got compensated according to your price tag, they got the rights to use your sketch as they see fit.

Oh okay then, wasn’t aware of this! I’m used to art platforms in terms of how they deal with plagiarism (even if you buy the art), but I suppose it makes sense for Fiverr. Normally, its a standard assumption that if you buy art, you need explicit permission to use it commercially, and otherwise assume its not within the terms of the purchase.

I definitely think it feels shady to resell on the same platform, especially as they are very definitely up-selling it with minimal edits (think: fill/bucket tool on a lineart) and have the advantage of a bigger pool of clients.

But you’re definitely right, they have the rights to use it as they see fit, even if it doesn’t seem fair I guess!

I’ll see what happens if they contact me again, and maybe I’ll ask for a higher price based on them reselling it.

Edit: They’ve sold it for £35 for reference.

[marinapomorac]

Oh okay then, wasn’t aware of this! I’m used to art platforms in terms of how they deal with plagiarism (even if you buy the art), but I suppose it makes sense for Fiverr. Normally, its a standard assumption that if you buy art, you need explicit permission to use it commercially, and otherwise assume its not within the terms of the purchase.

I definitely think it feels shady to resell on the same platform, especially as they are very definitely up-selling it with minimal edits (think: fill/bucket tool on a lineart) and have the advantage of a bigger pool of clients.

But you’re definitely right, they have the rights to use it as they see fit, even if it doesn’t seem fair I guess!

I’ll see what happens if they contact me again, and maybe I’ll ask for a higher price based on them reselling it.

Edit: They’ve sold it for £35 for reference.

I definitely think it feels shady to resell on the same platform

No, that is called outsourcing.

have the advantage of a bigger pool of clients.

This could benefit you if you are new seller. They will come to you when they have clients and it’s win/win situation until you get some exposure and can rise the prices.

even if it doesn’t seem fair

It is fair, why would it not be? They purchased sketch from you and with that sketch they can do whatever. The only thing here is that you did not know that copyright is automatically included. You need to set your pricing accordingly.

They’ve sold it for £35 for reference.

And imagine how much money would you get if they did not hire you? Zero.

I created something and my company wanted to pay me one time 3000$, and I transfer all the rights to them. I was poor single mother at the time so I said I will think about it. Fortunately it was Christmas time and holiday so I had extra time to think, and finally I said no. There is always someone who can make more money from your idea. You just need to be smart and get proper share.

[bigbrains]

Oh okay then, wasn’t aware of this! I’m used to art platforms in terms of how they deal with plagiarism (even if you buy the art), but I suppose it makes sense for Fiverr. Normally, its a standard assumption that if you buy art, you need explicit permission to use it commercially, and otherwise assume its not within the terms of the purchase.

I definitely think it feels shady to resell on the same platform, especially as they are very definitely up-selling it with minimal edits (think: fill/bucket tool on a lineart) and have the advantage of a bigger pool of clients.

But you’re definitely right, they have the rights to use it as they see fit, even if it doesn’t seem fair I guess!

I’ll see what happens if they contact me again, and maybe I’ll ask for a higher price based on them reselling it.

Edit: They’ve sold it for £35 for reference.

I think you should add a commercial license to your Gig extras and let them know that your image is not for commercial use when you are just paying $5.

RIght now they are not doing anything wrong.

[alyonagrapie]

Oh okay then, wasn’t aware of this! I’m used to art platforms in terms of how they deal with plagiarism (even if you buy the art), but I suppose it makes sense for Fiverr. Normally, its a standard assumption that if you buy art, you need explicit permission to use it commercially, and otherwise assume its not within the terms of the purchase.

I definitely think it feels shady to resell on the same platform, especially as they are very definitely up-selling it with minimal edits (think: fill/bucket tool on a lineart) and have the advantage of a bigger pool of clients.

But you’re definitely right, they have the rights to use it as they see fit, even if it doesn’t seem fair I guess!

I’ll see what happens if they contact me again, and maybe I’ll ask for a higher price based on them reselling it.

Edit: They’ve sold it for £35 for reference.

You might want to check out what fiverr’s ToS says regarding intellectual property. To sum it up, it says that you transfer all rights to the buyer, unless it is specifically stated in your gigs otherwise.

Regarding your situation, it would be more productive to focus your frustration on trying to find out how and why they can sell your work for 35 on the same marketplace. If they can do it, you can do it too, just got to figure out what you can change about your gig to get to the same price range.

[potsupotsupara]

You might want to check out what fiverr’s ToS says regarding intellectual property. To sum it up, it says that you transfer all rights to the buyer, unless it is specifically stated in your gigs otherwise.

Regarding your situation, it would be more productive to focus your frustration on trying to find out how and why they can sell your work for 35 on the same marketplace. If they can do it, you can do it too, just got to figure out what you can change about your gig to get to the same price range.

Of course, legally, they can do it. However, my frustration lies in that little reworking was done. As in, if they had taken my conceptual sketch, redrawn it, recolored it and edited it a bit more, I wouldn’t mind so much. It’s more that so little went into their side of their order with the client (fill bucket), compared to mine, and they made 7x more profit.

Not only that, their gig had no reviews until this one, and I can’t study much from their gig to make mine better. It has a badly formatted description, with two sentences, a couple of artworks on the thumbnails that aren’t particularly eye-catching, and nothing else. Perhaps their tags are good, but I had no way of knowing what they are.

Anyway, I understand why this is fine/fair/I should be happy I got a order, BUT I think its okay for me to be frustrated with this surprising experience (as a result of my assumptions on ToS.)

Especially when the client isn’t doing anything spectacularly good to resell my work and get higher paying clients… RIP

Thanks for all the replies!

**Edit: Looking at the ToS, it is technically not allowed, if I am reading this correctly. They cannot resell work on Fiverr, unless they buy a commercial licence. Otherwise their ownership falls under personal use.

To quote ToS:

“Some Gigs (including for custom created work) charge additional payments (through Gig Extras) for a Commercial Use License. This means that if you purchase the Gig for personal use, you will own all rights you require for such use, and will not need the Commercial Use License. If you intend to use it for any charge or other consideration, or for any purpose that is directly or indirectly in connection with any business, or other undertaking intended for profit, you will need to buy the Commercial Use License through a Gig Extra and will have broader rights that cover your business use.”

[uk1000]

Of course, legally, they can do it. However, my frustration lies in that little reworking was done. As in, if they had taken my conceptual sketch, redrawn it, recolored it and edited it a bit more, I wouldn’t mind so much. It’s more that so little went into their side of their order with the client (fill bucket), compared to mine, and they made 7x more profit.

Not only that, their gig had no reviews until this one, and I can’t study much from their gig to make mine better. It has a badly formatted description, with two sentences, a couple of artworks on the thumbnails that aren’t particularly eye-catching, and nothing else. Perhaps their tags are good, but I had no way of knowing what they are.

Anyway, I understand why this is fine/fair/I should be happy I got a order, BUT I think its okay for me to be frustrated with this surprising experience (as a result of my assumptions on ToS.)

Especially when the client isn’t doing anything spectacularly good to resell my work and get higher paying clients… RIP

Thanks for all the replies!

**Edit: Looking at the ToS, it is technically not allowed, if I am reading this correctly. They cannot resell work on Fiverr, unless they buy a commercial licence. Otherwise their ownership falls under personal use.

To quote ToS:

“Some Gigs (including for custom created work) charge additional payments (through Gig Extras) for a Commercial Use License. This means that if you purchase the Gig for personal use, you will own all rights you require for such use, and will not need the Commercial Use License. If you intend to use it for any charge or other consideration, or for any purpose that is directly or indirectly in connection with any business, or other undertaking intended for profit, you will need to buy the Commercial Use License through a Gig Extra and will have broader rights that cover your business use.”

**Edit: Looking at the ToS, it is technically not allowed, if I am reading this correctly. They cannot resell work on Fiverr, unless they buy a commercial licence. Otherwise their ownership falls under personal use.

That’s only if your gig has an extra for commercial license (or eg. if you said in one of the packages that a particular one included commercial rights). If you never mention commercial license anywhere in the gig (or that they don’t get all rights), the buyer gets all the rights to the delivery.

[potsupotsupara]

**Edit: Looking at the ToS, it is technically not allowed, if I am reading this correctly. They cannot resell work on Fiverr, unless they buy a commercial licence. Otherwise their ownership falls under personal use.

That’s only if your gig has an extra for commercial license (or eg. if you said in one of the packages that a particular one included commercial rights). If you never mention commercial license anywhere in the gig (or that they don’t get all rights), the buyer gets all the rights to the delivery.

Is there anywhere this is stated in the ToS? That by default, there is explicitly commercial license? Not trying to debate or anything, just want to be clear of it all so I can understand in the future.

[vibronx]

Is there anywhere this is stated in the ToS? That by default, there is explicitly commercial license? Not trying to debate or anything, just want to be clear of it all so I can understand in the future.

Directly from the Terms of Service:

" When purchasing a Gig, Buyers are granted all rights for the delivered work, unless otherwise specified by the Seller on their Gig page. Note: some Gigs charge additional payments (through Gig Extras) for Commercial Use License. See our “Ownership” and “Commercial Use License” sections below for more information."

[potsupotsupara]

Directly from the Terms of Service:

" When purchasing a Gig, Buyers are granted all rights for the delivered work, unless otherwise specified by the Seller on their Gig page. Note: some Gigs charge additional payments (through Gig Extras) for Commercial Use License. See our “Ownership” and “Commercial Use License” sections below for more information."

Ah okay, so when they state “all rights”, this includes commercial rights?

[vibronx]

Ah okay, so when they state “all rights”, this includes commercial rights?

Ah okay, so when they state “all rights”, this includes commercial rights?

Yes, your buyer can do whatever they want with your delivery unless you have stated otherwise on the gig page.

[marinapomorac]

Of course, legally, they can do it. However, my frustration lies in that little reworking was done. As in, if they had taken my conceptual sketch, redrawn it, recolored it and edited it a bit more, I wouldn’t mind so much. It’s more that so little went into their side of their order with the client (fill bucket), compared to mine, and they made 7x more profit.

Not only that, their gig had no reviews until this one, and I can’t study much from their gig to make mine better. It has a badly formatted description, with two sentences, a couple of artworks on the thumbnails that aren’t particularly eye-catching, and nothing else. Perhaps their tags are good, but I had no way of knowing what they are.

Anyway, I understand why this is fine/fair/I should be happy I got a order, BUT I think its okay for me to be frustrated with this surprising experience (as a result of my assumptions on ToS.)

Especially when the client isn’t doing anything spectacularly good to resell my work and get higher paying clients… RIP

Thanks for all the replies!

**Edit: Looking at the ToS, it is technically not allowed, if I am reading this correctly. They cannot resell work on Fiverr, unless they buy a commercial licence. Otherwise their ownership falls under personal use.

To quote ToS:

“Some Gigs (including for custom created work) charge additional payments (through Gig Extras) for a Commercial Use License. This means that if you purchase the Gig for personal use, you will own all rights you require for such use, and will not need the Commercial Use License. If you intend to use it for any charge or other consideration, or for any purpose that is directly or indirectly in connection with any business, or other undertaking intended for profit, you will need to buy the Commercial Use License through a Gig Extra and will have broader rights that cover your business use.”

my frustration lies in that little reworking was done

I worked for company that resold my 1000$ work for 10000$ as-is.

But, I was never going to get 10000$ as an individual without connections.

Commercial Use License through a Gig Extra

Big question is, do you have this in your extras? if not, it is automatically included in the main price.

[potsupotsupara]

my frustration lies in that little reworking was done

I worked for company that resold my 1000$ work for 10000$ as-is.

But, I was never going to get 10000$ as an individual without connections.

Commercial Use License through a Gig Extra

Big question is, do you have this in your extras? if not, it is automatically included in the main price.

For a company is one thing. For an individual on Fiverr is another, at least in my eyes. When you create something for a company, you already have inherent knowledge that they will make much more significant profit with your work. Had I known the intent was to resell my work, I’d have of course increased the cost for commercial use (that I had assumed wasn’t included)

I’ve adjusted all my gigs now to have a Commercial Licence Extra to avoid this problem in the future, but was definitely my fault in the first place for not knowing this was needed!!

[marinapomorac]

For a company is one thing. For an individual on Fiverr is another, at least in my eyes. When you create something for a company, you already have inherent knowledge that they will make much more significant profit with your work. Had I known the intent was to resell my work, I’d have of course increased the cost for commercial use (that I had assumed wasn’t included)

I’ve adjusted all my gigs now to have a Commercial Licence Extra to avoid this problem in the future, but was definitely my fault in the first place for not knowing this was needed!!

I known the intent was to resell my work

Every person who is buying on Fiverr should be first taken as reseller and then second option private usage.

’ve adjusted all my gigs now to have a Commercial Licence Extra

PERFECT!

And make sure to warn buyers on that since no one (mostly) reads extras or description.

[potsupotsupara]

I known the intent was to resell my work

Every person who is buying on Fiverr should be first taken as reseller and then second option private usage.

’ve adjusted all my gigs now to have a Commercial Licence Extra

PERFECT!

And make sure to warn buyers on that since no one (mostly) reads extras or description.

Thank you for the advice! No idea until now how many resellers there were lol!!

[marinapomorac]

Of course, legally, they can do it. However, my frustration lies in that little reworking was done. As in, if they had taken my conceptual sketch, redrawn it, recolored it and edited it a bit more, I wouldn’t mind so much. It’s more that so little went into their side of their order with the client (fill bucket), compared to mine, and they made 7x more profit.

Not only that, their gig had no reviews until this one, and I can’t study much from their gig to make mine better. It has a badly formatted description, with two sentences, a couple of artworks on the thumbnails that aren’t particularly eye-catching, and nothing else. Perhaps their tags are good, but I had no way of knowing what they are.

Anyway, I understand why this is fine/fair/I should be happy I got a order, BUT I think its okay for me to be frustrated with this surprising experience (as a result of my assumptions on ToS.)

Especially when the client isn’t doing anything spectacularly good to resell my work and get higher paying clients… RIP

Thanks for all the replies!

**Edit: Looking at the ToS, it is technically not allowed, if I am reading this correctly. They cannot resell work on Fiverr, unless they buy a commercial licence. Otherwise their ownership falls under personal use.

To quote ToS:

“Some Gigs (including for custom created work) charge additional payments (through Gig Extras) for a Commercial Use License. This means that if you purchase the Gig for personal use, you will own all rights you require for such use, and will not need the Commercial Use License. If you intend to use it for any charge or other consideration, or for any purpose that is directly or indirectly in connection with any business, or other undertaking intended for profit, you will need to buy the Commercial Use License through a Gig Extra and will have broader rights that cover your business use.”

Not only that, their gig had no reviews until this one

Yes, but they are on platform from 2016 and only made 13-20 sales so you can’t really guess what is the deal there.

But, now that the thing is resolved, suggestion:

" I am offering cheap commissions for anime art and character design. "

Change cheap in to affordable. Cheap indicates that you are more-or-less OK with doing it for 5 and someone resells for 35…

In GIG description:

" I will create some amazing conceptual sketches for your character!"

This alone indicates that I am buying a sketch from you. Logically, I would develop it further from the “sketch state”. So commercial rights should be mentioned in description too (if you want CR that is charged extra or something like that)

Profile description

“hi!! :0c I am open for custom orders too!!!” Am I too old to get what :0c stands for?

Related tags

If someone is looking for fursona do you think they will search for furry or fursona?

Since your tag is furry.

[miiila]

Hi,

I am wondering whether I should report a recent client I had. Basically, my buyer paid for a 24hr $5 sketch from me and were happy with it, payment all went through. However, after this, I noticed a couple days later they had a review on their own seller page from someone who was happy with their commission – the image they posted on their review was exactly my sketch, but traced and colored. Does this count as plagiarism, and should I report them?

I feel bad because this client can potentially be a reoccuring client, however, I am not happy with them reselling my work (regardless of profit, I would still not like it even if they were losing money by doing this.) And even more so, their reviewer could have been my direct client, instead of theirs?

Should I report them? Or should I just let it go?

I am not happy with them reselling my work (regardless of profit,

If you generally don’t want to work with resellers, you could try to highlight that in your gig description and FAQ, or stress that you only work with end customers for better and faster collaboration or something that sounds more positive, but I think there’s a good chance that it would keep the more decent kind of resellers from ordering from you, while it wouldn’t keep the ones you might not want to work with from ordering.

Basically, you can ask resellers to not order, just like we can ask people to not order before they contacted us, but they can still can do it.

You should price your gigs (if via commercial license or regular gig price) so that you won’t go and do maths like “and they made 7x more profit” retrospectively. Once you delivered it, let it go. 🎶

[kometbeats]

Oh okay then, wasn’t aware of this! I’m used to art platforms in terms of how they deal with plagiarism (even if you buy the art), but I suppose it makes sense for Fiverr. Normally, its a standard assumption that if you buy art, you need explicit permission to use it commercially, and otherwise assume its not within the terms of the purchase.

I definitely think it feels shady to resell on the same platform, especially as they are very definitely up-selling it with minimal edits (think: fill/bucket tool on a lineart) and have the advantage of a bigger pool of clients.

But you’re definitely right, they have the rights to use it as they see fit, even if it doesn’t seem fair I guess!

I’ll see what happens if they contact me again, and maybe I’ll ask for a higher price based on them reselling it.

Edit: They’ve sold it for £35 for reference.

its a standard assumption that if you buy art, you need explicit permission

You should’ve probably read ToS instead of assuming.