selling logos multiple times?

Great idea behind the site - I've often tried to figure out what I could do with logo proposals that don't make the cut and I'm thrilled to find an outlet.

I could easily envision making purchases here too. 

I noticed that some of the logos have had multiple downloads. Great for the contributor who uploaded it. But I don't see myself buying a logo here that someone else could download two weeks later and use for their business. While this seems less problematic with the other types of materials offered, isn't it dangerous to have the same business identity get purchased by multiple businesses?  

Great question!

Several buyers may download the same artwork, but few of them use the entire image as is. Some buyers may use parts of the image, alter the fonts, change the colors, and even tweak the image to fit their client's needs.

I understand your concern for this. But really this concept is no different than clip art or photography you would buy online or on a cd. Potentially you could use an image from their library for your client's project that could be used by other designers as well.

Since all of our files are fully editable, we hope that designers consider these images as "thought starters" and customize them and make them their own. 

I hope this answered your question. And we thank you for joining us. We look forward to seeing your future graphic "leftovers".

I see, fair enough. Up to the designer/buyer to be smart about what they do with the artwork they buy. If I understand though, I can use one or more elements purchased here in the development of a client logo (as opposed to some stock art sites that specifically prohibit this usage in logos)? 

Something else that crossed my mind last night (sorry, do you hate me yet?) is that I noticed in the file submission requirements, we're requested to supply a zip including any linked graphics and fonts used. However wouldn't this violate the license agreement of most font software which prohibits redistribution in this manner? I know very well that, in reality, fonts get passed along and probably used by people who haven't purchased the font, but here you're explicitly asking people to redistribute their font files for shared profit...

I swear I'm not trying to be a thorn in your side at all...I LOVE the idea of your site and I really want to use it...I'm just wary of legal liabilities. Thanks for any further insight...

Beyond fonts, looking the web templates for example, is it realistic to believe whoever uploaded them actually has the right to redistribute those stock photos for profit? I see that your legal page includes a clause:

"By uploading Content, you are warranting that you own all proprietary rights, including copyright, in and to the Content. The Supplier agrees that neither GraphicLeftovers.com nor any of its directors, officers, employees, partners, affiliates or agents shall be liable for any damages, whether direct, indirect, consequential or incidental, arising out of the use of, or the inability to use any Content."

I'm not sure that is going to protect me, as a buyer. A contributor may, in ignorance of the nuances of copyright, feel he or she has all the rights to upload and sell their design without realizing they're violating some photographer's copyright. The clause above sort of makes it their problem, not yours, like you said: "If we receive a notification from a company or individual claiming the art you submitted is an infringement of copyright...then we simply send them your way." But if I, as a buyer, purchase something here and use it, and it turns the original contributor here didn't have all proprietary rights, what's stopping a photographer (or his agency) from coming after ME for using his photo without having legitimately acquired the right to do so. That makes me a bit wary to buy...

I'm sorry, I'm truly not trying to be a negative jerk...just want to think this all the way through...

All very good questions, once again.

Yes, people share fonts with others on a day to day basis, whether it is sending your files to the printer or providing your art files to the client or another designer.

Technically in those cases you are breaking the license agreement because you are giving them to unauthorized users. As designers we just view it as part of the final "package". Does the printer remove the fonts from their library once the artwork was printed? No one really knows. But you bring up a very good point. We want all of our members and ourselves as well to be "safe" and not open any doors to potential licensing problems. Therefore, we are going to ask that all submissions that include fonts in their logos be converted to art.

Converting fonts to art is a simple process that is offered in almost all graphic software packages. Although this prevents the buyer from replicating the font used, it will give them a representation of the font the designer selected and then the buyer can either try to match it with a font in their own library or choose a totally different font all together.

Now as for photography, each submission for the web templates (since they are the only ones contain photos) has to show a extended license agreement for each of the photos used in their templates. Large online template design companies must purchase these agreements from stock photo companies like photos.com, so they have the right to resell the images in their template downloads. What we have found, is that most designers have not done this, so many submissions have been unfortunately rejected.

So with that in mind, we feel that the web template area will probably not be “deep” with submissions. What we are finding is that there is more of a demand for logos, icons, and illustrations. Therefore, we are in the midst of reorganizing our categories to add some new features and eliminate some as well.

We thank you for examining Graphic Leftovers so closely. Since we are new to the member-generated graphics world, we know that it takes a lot of fine tuning to get it just right. Thanks again for your input and we hope you will feel a little “safer” knowing we are putting these new ideas into place.