Canva: Terms of Use You Didn't Read

Let's talk about Canva! Terms of Use You Didn't Read is back and we're going to talk through just a couple of interesting terms that I found when looking through Canva's terms of use. Remember, these are things that you've agreed to by using Canva.

I found some real treasure when reading these terms! There's a term in Canva's Free Media License Agreement that applies to how you can use some of the stock photos and imagery within Canva.

Plain-English gold star

First of all, like Pinterest, Canva gives a plain-English explanation of provisions in its terms of use so, gold star to Canva.

The many faces (or pages) to Canva's Terms of Use

There's more to its policies than just Canva's Terms of Use. The policies are made up of several different pages or sub-policies, including a Contributor Agreement and a Free Media License Agreement. The Contributor Agreement applies to any designers that submit their work to be a part of Canva's offering, whether it's a template or photograph. And then there's the Free Media License Agreement.

This is super important. So, if you use any of that free media, like stock photos or graphic art, here's what Canva has to say about using that free stuff.

a selection from canva's terms of use that states: If a photo, icon, music track, video, or other media contains an identifiable person, place, logo, or trademark, please ensure you check the source or contact us if you're unsure. We can't guarantee that any free media have the appropriate releases for commercial use.

Yowza.

So, again. If you're using anything with an identifiable person, with a logo, that reflects a certain place, Canva, here, is saying that they can't guarantee they have the appropriate rights for you to use those things in a commercial orbusiness setting. So that is important if you are using Canva in connection with your business.

By publishing on the platform, you're giving permission to display

Next, simple, if you publish your designs in Canva, then you allow Canva to publish those for others to view.

Canva's Terms of Use sheds light on what happens to media you've used if you cancel your paid account

I was curious about this, since I recently started dabbling in Canva myself. Obviously when you have a paid or "Pro" account, you have access to more things and you can do more within the platform. But what happens if you close your account or you cancel your membership to Canva? What happens to the designs that you created with media that were, say, "Pro" only, but you plan to still pin those pins or use those graphics on Instagram? Can you do that even though you don't have your account any longer?

The answer is yes, of course, anything that you created under a valid, paid plan, you can still continue to use.

But, if there was some kind of invalid transaction, they couldn't charge you during that period where that thing was created, you don't have rights to use it.

Big Brother/Canva is watching

Finally, Canva has the right to monitor anything you import or export from its platform to make sure that you're complying with its terms of use.

I hope this kind of opens your eyes on things that you've agreed to by using Canva, especially with regard to that Free Media License,.