Before Commercial Use, Read Each Tool's License
"Can I sell an AI-made image?" "Can I use it in client work?" Conditions differ per tool and per plan. Here's a license overview of major AIs.
What Is Commercial Use, Anyway
- Revenue purpose (sales, ads, client work)
- Affiliate on a personal blog → commercial
- Free use on a company site → commercial
- Hobby posts on personal social → not commercial
Commercial Licenses of Major Image AIs
| Tool | Commercial use | Conditions |
|---|---|---|
| Midjourney | OK on paid plans | Conditions change by revenue scale (check official) |
| DALL-E (ChatGPT) | Personal plan OK | Follow OpenAI terms |
| Stable Diffusion | Depends on model | SDXL OK, confirm custom fine-tunes |
| FLUX Pro | OK | FLUX Schnell is a separate license |
| Adobe Firefly | OK | Sells commercial safety as a point |
Video
- Runway: OK from Standard up
- OpenAI Sora: its offering changed—check the current delivery method and commercial terms officially
- Kling: differs per plan, confirm
- Caution: video using people's face photos has separate portrait-rights issues
Music
- Suno: commercial OK from Pro up, but others' copyright infringement is separate
- Udio: similar, Pro up
- ElevenLabs: commercial voice synthesis OK from Creator up
Text-Type
- ChatGPT: personal plan OK, but "pretending another person wrote it" is NG
- Claude: personal plan OK
- Gemini: personal plan OK
Common Cautions
1. Training-Data Issue
Outputting something resembling the author/style of source images the AI learned from raises indirect-infringement debate. Avoid prompts with specific artist names.
2. Trademarks/Characters
Directly generating Disney, Ghibli, famous characters → trademark/copyright infringement. Even if AI can draw it, using it is a separate matter.
3. People's Portrait Rights
Generating a real person's face → commercial use without their permission is NG.
4. Terms Updates
Tool-side terms change sometimes. Confirm the latest version once a year.
Confirmation Items in Client Work
- Whether the client is OK with "AI-generated"
- Whether project name/budget/period are within the tool terms' license range
- Whether handing over rights (copyright transfer) is possible
- Client's internal rules (finance/medical are strict)
Keep Records
- Tool used, plan, generation datetime, prompt
- So "when, with what it was made" can be proven later
- An era where disclosure to clients/partners is required
References When Troubled
- Each tool's official FAQ
- Agency for Cultural Affairs "AI and Copyright" guidelines
- Industry-body (creator-side) statements
- Consult a lawyer (when amounts are large)
Next Step
Learn how to make safely in "Principles of Making to Avoid Copyright Infringement."
