A guide to image licensing

You’ve created a new project that you want to sell, and all you need is to add a few images to it. You think that it shouldn’t be that hard, since it seems that the internet is full of images out there on social media. Also, you’ve got 3 emails this month that tout their free image downloads. Surely, you can just grab one of them for your project, right?

If you think that, you would be wrong and could be setting yourself up for having to pay out a substantial amount in royalties. While an image is an image, and it is easy to just right click and download; it does not mean that you have the legal rights to use that image. If the image’s rights are reserved by the creator, you may have to buy those image licensing rights to use it in any commercial setting. Also, depending on the setting, you may have to pay more for the image licenses. However, how do you know what rights you have to buy?

Royalty Free Rights

When you go to stock image sites and select the image that you want to use. It is important to consider what rights are being offered. If the image is listed as offering royalty free rights to the image and you buy that type of rights, it means that you pay them one fee and receive the rights to use the image as many times as you desire in the future. However, you must be careful to observe a few limitations on that license. While you are purchasing the rights to use the image, the site may implement restrictions on how that image may be used. For example, you may not be able to use it for commercial purposes. So, you may want to inquire from the site what restrictions are on the image use. If you want more uses, you may be able to buy a license for those uses.

Extended Image Rights

For these extended purposes for use of the image, they may be offering an extended license for use of the image. In that case, the purchase may entitle you to use the image in the commercial reasons for which you want the image. These licenses cost more, but they allow more flexibility in use of the image to suit your needs.

Public Domain Rights

Some images are listed as public domain, and those type of images are free of copyright and restrictions, due to reasons such as the expiration of prior claimed rights. These images are free to be used in any setting without the restrictions of licensed images, if they are truly public domain.

Conclusion and Solution

Image licensing is a complicated world, and it can take a lot of research to determine the legal rights for images that are randomly found on the internet. That is one reason for using a qualified and trusted stock image provider. The provider has gone through a great deal of personal time and effort to ensure the rights of those images, and they can offer you protection from hidden legal landmines that you don’t want to encounter, years into using the image and being known for it. When you explore the vast 2 million image library at RightsPlatform, you can trust assured that the rights options are accurately portrayed and secure purchases can secure the images for the purposes you desire for your visual media.