question about licensing

LockStockBob · #1 (**permalink**) 08-08-2006, 01:25 PM

Call me paranoid, but out of the 20 options on bigstock, I cant see any which give away my rights, ie, my right to continue selling other photos on other sites.

What I want is simple. To retain all rights, so that I can continue to sell microstock without giving anyone ownership of any of the pics.

http://www.bigstockphoto.com/account/uploads/license/

I was about to tick all the boxes, but thought Id post just to be sure. The last time I spoke to someone they said they only chose some of the options, not all of them.

At the end of the day, these are EXTRA additional rights, right? So by ticking all of the boxes, we are not limiting the use of the photos any more than in the default "non-ticked" state, we are giving them extra rights, right?

ie, the only reason not to tick boxes, is if you simply dont want people to use your photos, and the most sales will be had if all the boxes are ticked?

Gracey · #2 (**permalink**) 08-08-2006, 01:35 PM

The only option i didn't selection was the one where you make $20 per sale - it allows for "unlimited use" - which to means they can use it and use it and use it...doen't say for how long, or how many.

None of the options stop you from selling images anywhere else though.

LockStockBob · #3 (**permalink**) 08-08-2006, 01:44 PM

Thanks Gracey

Youve been selling images longer than I have - do you think it matters much? Id rather sell one image once for $20 than loose a sale to someone who bought another image which he could use a million times.

Unfortunately we cant see who buys which images. Do you find that you get several rights managed sales of the same image, which hints that the same buyer comes back time and again to rebuy the image for further print runs, as needed?

Gracey · #4 (**permalink**) 08-08-2006, 03:13 PM

I haven't had any special license sales at BSP.

My concern about the 'unlimited use' clause is that if I happened to sell the image and someone wanted to buy the rights, I can't do that because someone has a copy of it they can use as long as they want.

I guess it's more a matter of looking to the future - I can always tell someone that theres a limited run of 1000 on that image, but with unlimited I can't stop them using it.

CJPHoto · #5 (**permalink**) 08-08-2006, 05:07 PM

Note that the unlimited usage is only in relation to one product. So if they put it on a tshirt, they cant then go put it on a cup as well, etc. But they can put it on an unlimited amount of tshirts.

LockStockBob · #6 (**permalink**) 08-08-2006, 08:22 PM

Thats a very interesting point Gracey, I hadnt thought of that.

How many other people do what gracey is doing? I cant imagine ever wanting to sell the rights - trying to decide whether to take your suggestion or not.

Im guessing... but id imagine more sales would be made by big companies who might want to take you up on the unlimited rights offer. Id much rather a large company used my image and I got $20, or nothing at all, than they didnt use my image.

Id give microsoft the rights to any of my images for free, if I knew they were going to use it

And me personally.... Id never buy an image which I didnt have unlimited use of, if I suspected that I might have to incur extra costs in the future. I like things to be done and dusted, without having to worry about investing more money for more print runs (just the way I do things)