Image Usage Rights 101: How to Make Sure You’re Covered
So you just found the perfect image for your project. The only problem? You have no idea whether you have permission to use it on social media or your website. Understanding usage rights can be tricky (especially when you’re pressed for time), but it’s crucial in making sure your creative project or advertising campaign goes off without a hitch.
In this article we’ll break down what you need to know about usage rights and help you figure out which options are the best for your creative needs.
What are usage rights, anyway?
Let’s take a step back. Copyright law protects original creations, including photographs. In most instances, you can’t copy, use, or sell a copyright-protected image without permission from the person who created it. So even though you would love to use that cool photo from a rock concert, you can’t use it unless you pay to license the image and agree to use it in your project in a certain way. When you download a stock photo, or subscribe to a site for stock imagery access, you can buy that permission as outlined in your agreement. These are your usage rights.
In the age of social media where we might see hundreds of images a day, copyright can be especially confusing. Some of the most common misconceptions include thinking that if you’re not profiting off of an image, you don’t need permission to use it; or, if you remove the image after receiving a notice, you won’t owe any fees for infringement. Unfortunately, this isn’t the case, and no one wants a great campaign to be stopped short because you didn’t take the time to make sure you have the right permissions.
How do you figure out the type of usage rights you need?
Different stock image galleries offer different usage rights. You might purchase an image from a stock website that only gives you the right to use the image on social media—requiring you to purchase additional rights if you want to use it on your website.
The first thing you should do is determine whether or not your assets will fall into the editorial or commercial use buckets. A commercial use generally means anything being used to sell a product (think: marketing campaigns, promotions, or merchandise). If that’s the case, models in the photo will need to have signed releases and all logos will need to be removed. When you license royalty-free content from Getty Images, you can rest easy knowing that all of this has already been taken care of.
Once you figure out how you’ll use the licensed assets, now it’s time to choose a plan that makes the most sense for your team. Getty Images offers Premium Access plans with different degrees of reproduction rights, so you can pick the plan that best supports the types of projects you produce.
A Premium Access plan with Getty Images offers three levels for usage rights: basic, standard, and extended.
Basic usage rights
- Basic usage rights offers the following protection:
- Use of assets on digital media
- Commercial use of royalty-free content, including print and digital advertising, promotions, website, and banner ads
- Indemnification up to $10,000—if you receive an intellectual property infringement claim for your authorized use of a licensed image, Getty Images will cover fees relating to the claim up to $10,000 per image
- Share content with up to 10 users—so if the department down the hall wants to piggyback off of your campaign and use the same image, feel free to share away (as long as users are within the same company)
- Use of editorial content for the length of your Getty Images agreement, plus thirty days
- A print run up to 500,000
- Basic does not include:
- The ability to use assets on product packaging
- The use of assets on electronic templates, such as business cards
Standard usage rights
If you know you need to reproduce the content in print form, standard usage rights might work better.
- With Standard usage rights you’ll get:
- Use of assets on digital media
- Commercial use of royalty-free content, including print and digital advertising, promotions, website, and banner ads
- Indemnification up to $250,000—if you receive an intellectual property infringement claim for your authorized use of a licensed image, Getty Images will cover fees relating to the claim up to $250,000 per image
- Unlimited sharing rights
- Ability to resell up to 100,000 products using the content (i.e. use the image on product packaging)
- Use of editorial content for the length of your Getty Images agreement, plus thirty days
- Unlimited print run
- Standard does not include:
- The use of assets on electronic templates
Extended usage rights
This level provides the most protection and indemnification.
- With extended usage rights you get:
- Use of assets on digital media
- Commercial use of royalty-free content, including print and digital advertising, promotions, website, and banner ads
- Sharing rights for all users
- Unlimited digital templates
- Licensed content can be used in products for resale, with no limit on the number of products produced
- Uncapped indemnification
- Unlimited print run
In addition to these three levels of usage rights, you can create custom agreements that more closely fit your needs. For more information about usage rights, see the Getty Images Content License Agreement for more information or speak with a sales representative.
