Don’t get confused by these seemingly similar terms, which refer to different kinds of music, photos, and videos that are free for you to use for your own personal and commercial work.
If you’re looking for digital content like images, music and film clips to use with your content, you may get two similar but very different terms: “Copyright Free” and “Royalty Free.”
If you first create something, you own it. You’re free to use it in various ways. You don’t need to ask anyone else if you can use their content. So, if you want to share your idea without worrying about copyright, the best thing to do is talk to a lawyer and find out whether the idea covered by copyright is allowed for you to use in any way whatsoever.
Royalty Free Content
Royalty free content is a resource that was created by and belongs to you. It can be used for anything, from educational purposes and product promotion to your products or services. You can add it to your website, blog or share it on social media pages while keeping the ownership rights in tact.
Unsplash and Pixabay is a great source of royalty-free photos and illustrations, but if you plan on continuing to use those images, there are some restrictions that need to be considered. A common type of royalty-free license limits usage directly or indirectly with the stock photo provider via a few simple rules.
Copyright Free Content
Copyright free content is any content that is not covered by copyright. There are a wide variety of copyrights, and it may be that content falls under more than one of them. However, the basic idea behind copyright is that none of the original creators can do anything with a work without permission.
A lot of work produced by artists and designers are licensed under Creative Commons. This means that the original author doesn’t own the copyright on their work and they allow you to use their images, words or music free of charge as long as you credit them when you share it with others. For example, if you want to use an image or music that is freely available under Creative Commons to market your brand or your business, then make sure you comply with their license terms first before uploading it to any platform.
Royalty Free VS Copyright Free
The difference between Copyright and Royalty Free licensing is that Copyright is granted to a specific entity, while royalty free means you can go ahead and use the work without paying any money.
This term has been used interchangeably with copyrights, but the two are very different from each other.
A copyright protects the originality of a work, while a royalty is a fee paid by the user.
Copyright Free content means that the content is available with propriety rights and the possessor has the full rights to use the content at his will. But on the other side Royalty free content means that the content can be used without owning the copyright or paying royalties on a per use basis.
These two terms are used interchangeably, but the fact of the matter is that they couldn’t be any more different. Copyrights and royalties cover two different concepts. A copyright protects a licensor that charges a royalty to use intellectual property. Then again, copyright free and royalty free have nothing to do with each other.