Commercial Use? (Graphic Design)?

Question

A lot of times, I download fonts/textures/brushes online. Most of them are free for personal use. I'm expanding my graphic sideline, and I'm not accepting work from restaurants and stuff. If I use my downloaded resources on those poster ads and consequently get paid a fee, that is commercial use, right? If not, then what is commercial use?

If it is, then what do I do about my resources? Do I email them simply asking for permission to use them? What if they require some sort of monetary compensation? I'm not hooked up to Paypal or anything, nor do I have a credit card. And in any case, my fees are almost like token gifts; I don't really have rates, since it's just a sideline.

I don't know what to do. I don't wanna get in trouble or anything, or accused of art theft. I could credit them on my portfolio site, but that's all I can do.

Any advice from seasoned graphic designers would be really useful, as are resources for information and usable material.

Thank you!

Answer 1

It's almost impossible to ID a font so if you are using some free fonts don't sweat that.

As far as graphics go lifting them and using them could get you into trouble. This is a small world you'd be surprised who sees your work. Just build the cost of the graphic into your bid. We use fotolia and dreamstime and they run 1-5 per photo. Don't buy them until they are approved. Just save the watermarked pic from the website and use that. It will be grainy but good enough to let a client sign off if that's the pic they want.

Finally many statements about 'commercial' use are so people don't gather them up and sell their pictures as part of a collection. You have to read the fine print.

Using the stock photo site is the safest and not really that expensive. They have already got the necc release forms taken care of for you.