Legal Issues with Stock Photos

Stock photography is a relatively new industry catering to supplying a large range of quality photos or images that can be licensed for specific uses. Many different industries, professionals and even children / students utilize the services of Stock Photos for just as many reasons as there are photos available to choose from.

These include: Book publishers, specialty publishers, magazines, advertising agencies, filmmakers, web designers, graphic artists, interior decor firms, corporate creative groups, and others use stock photography to fulfill the needs of their creative studies, hobbies, crafts and school or college assignments. The list is almost endless!

While time and money saved is often a priority for those wishing to use the images from stock photo suppliers rather than personally employing a photographer or taking the photos themselves, the range of images available is usually huge- guaranteeing that a suitable image should be found easily enough.

The popularity of using stock photos for projects has increased tremendously as people become more confident in using their computers. It’s not just the professional webmasters using these services today! It is now very easy to peruse photo stock in user friendly searchable online databases, complete a purchase online as well, and then watch as the image is magically delivered straight to your desk or work station, via download or email. Nothing could be simpler!

What are the main contractual terms used in Stock Photos?

“Free” means “free of royalties” rather than “no cost”. This is often a point of confusion for clients when researching terms of trade which needs clarification. Generally it includes the following key points:

• Pay a one-time fee to use the image multiple times for multiple purposes
• No time limit on when the buyer can use an image.
• No one can have exclusive rights of a Royalty-free image
• A Royalty-free image usually has a limit to how many times the buyer can reproduce it.

“Rights-Managed” – also known as licensed images pertaining to the following:

• The buyer must pay each time he uses the image.
• There is a time limit on how long a buyer has exclusive use of an image. The fee is based on such things as exclusivity, distribution, length of time used, geographic location of use and so forth.
• A Rights-managed image usually allows a much larger print run per image than a Royalty-free license.
• Editorial is a form of rights-managed license when there are no releases for the subjects. In this case it means the images cannot be used for advertising or to depict controversial subjects, only for news or educational purposes.
• Not all Rights-managed licenses are exclusive, that must be stipulated in the agreement.

Professional stock photographers can place their images with one or more stock agencies on a contractual basis. In return they are compensated with a defined commission basis for a specified contract term. There is some speculation that the principle reason for illegal pirated use of protected images is mainly due to the high prices that many agencies charge for subscription to their services. There are also free services available online, but many of the images are not to the same strict high standards and quality of those within the pay to use stock photo companies.