Case study - The Rights Stuff
These days, stock images are usually licensed in one of three ways, although don't be fooled into thinking this means the business of deciding which to adopt is easy - it isn't! Each library implements each licensing model in a slightly different way, and doing your research before signing on the dotted line is absolutely essential. It's rare that a picture submitted under one licensing model can be changed to another. Here are the three commonly found licensing formats described:
- Rights managed A picture is priced on the basis of how it is to be used. The medium (magazine, newspaper, TV), territory (UK, US), size (quarter page, full page) and duration (two weeks, three years) are all taken into account when an image is sold. A client may request that the image is exclusive for the period of the licence, meaning they don't want it to be sold to anyone else. This is a logical way of working for most: a big company wanting to use an image for a worldwide campaign pays more than a local business wanting it for a leaflet. Furthermore, because the way in which the picture can be used is tightly defined at the point of sale, any copyright infringement can be more easily spotted by the photographer and chased up for payment.
- Royalty-free images For a one-off fee, royalty-free images offer unlimited, non-exclusive use of an image. The customer is buying the rights to use the image as often as they wish, and in whichever way they wish for as long as they want. They advantage for the photographer is that these agreements are not exclusive, meaning the picture can be sold to different customers.
- License packages Many libraries are now combining aspects of the RM and RF models to form a ‘third way' of selling. Licensing models such as Rights Ready from Getty and PLUS - the Picture Licensing Universal System, a US industry coalition - are trying to make things simpler for the customer and more profitable for the photographer. These licences are designed to simplify the definitions of how an image is to be used so fewer price bands are offered.
