Digital Downloads: Escrow Protection Tips

Digital downloads are the highest-volume, lowest-value transactions on any marketplace, which is exactly why buyers skip verification. A $20 font seems too cheap to check. Then it turns out to be a pirated commercial family, and the exposure is not $20 — it is a licensing claim against whatever you used it in.

The Categories and Their Specific Risks

Fonts. The highest-risk item here. Commercial fonts are widely pirated and redistributed. Check the foundry name, search it, and confirm the seller has a licence to transfer. Web use, app embedding, and logo use are usually separate permissions.

Icon packs. Verify the count. "500 icons" often means 100 icons in five weights. Check the format — SVG is editable, PNG is not — and whether they share a consistent grid and stroke width.

Presets and LUTs. Ask which software version they target. Lightroom presets moved format across versions, and older files may not import. Presets are also trivially copied, so provenance matters.

Plugins. Check the version against your platform version. Ask whether updates are included and whether the licence permits use on client sites.

Stock assets. The licensing question dominates: model releases for recognisable people, property releases for buildings, and whether commercial use is permitted at all.

Code libraries. Check the licence for copyleft terms that would affect what you distribute.

Verification That Takes Five Minutes

1. Download everything in the deal chat before confirming anything.
2. Open every file type at least once. Corrupted archives and wrong formats surface immediately.
3. Count the items against the listing claim. Discrepancy here is the single most common dispute.
4. Check the actual format, not the file extension. A .svg that contains an embedded raster image is not a vector.
5. Look for the licence file. If the archive has none, ask before confirming.
6. Search for the item name plus "free." Freely licensed assets resold as original work are the most common fraud in this category.
7. Scan executables. For anything that runs — plugins, scripts, installers — scan before opening. Legitimate design assets do not need executable permissions.

That last point deserves emphasis: fonts, icons and presets are data files. An executable inside a design-asset archive has no legitimate reason to be there.

Provenance: The Check Nobody Does

For any asset with a commercial original — a font family, a premium plugin, a stock collection — ask the seller where they obtained it and whether the licence permits transfer.

Most licences for creative assets are non-transferable. The seller bought the right to use it, not the right to resell it. That means a large share of listings in this category cannot legally deliver what they promise, and the liability for using unlicensed work sits with whoever publishes it.

Honest sellers in this category are typically selling their own original work. Ask.

Pricing

• Font family: $15–$100
• Icon pack, 100+: $10–$50
• Preset pack, 20+: $10–$50
• WordPress plugin: $30–$200
• Stock pack: $20–$100
• Code library: $20–$200

Prices far below these are the strongest available signal that the item is not the seller's to sell.

For Sellers

Sell your own work, or hold a licence that explicitly permits resale and be ready to show it. State the exact count and formats. Include a licence file inside the archive, not just in the listing text. Provide a sample. Sellers who make provenance obvious close faster, because the buyers who are paying attention are the ones who complete.

Using the Escrow Window

On Escrozon, funds are held in escrow while you check the delivery. For low-value downloads the temptation is to confirm immediately — but the whole verification above takes five minutes, and confirming is the point at which your recourse ends.

If files are missing, formats are wrong, or the item appears elsewhere as a free or commercial product the seller does not own, raise it in the deal chat before confirming, and open a dispute if it is not resolved.

Frequently Asked Questions

How do I check if a font is pirated? Open it and read the embedded metadata for the foundry and licence, then search the foundry's site for the family. If it is a commercial font being sold at a fraction of the foundry price, it is not licensed.

The pack has fewer items than advertised. Is that a dispute? Yes, and a clear one. Count against the listing and screenshot both.

Can I use these commercially? Only if the licence says so. Personal-use licences are common and commonly ignored, and the consequence lands on the publisher, not the seller.

What if a file will not open? Raise it in the deal chat first — it is often a format or version issue the seller can fix quickly. Escalate only if they cannot.

Is it worth verifying a $10 purchase? Yes, because your exposure is not the purchase price. Using an unlicensed font or image in commercial work is a licensing claim, and it does not scale with what you paid.