Licensing

Licensing explained
When an image is bought from alamy.com, the buyer purchases the right to use that image in a particular way. This is called a License. We offer Traditional (both exclusive (Rights Protected) and non-exclusive), and Royalty-Free Licensed images.

Traditional Licensing
This can be both non-exclusive and exclusive and means that the image is licensed for a specific use.

Non-exclusive:

• The buyer pays a royalty to the contributor each time he/she uses the image, but someone else can use the image.
• The buyer must specify, each time: intended use, media, territory and duration.
• A future function will be that the buyer can find out where/when the image has been used as we keep a record of all licenses that have been sold.
• Pricing is based on intended use, media, duration and territory. The territorial pricing will be matched to the specific country.

Exclusive - also called 'Rights Protected':

• The buyer pays a royalty to the contributor each time they use the image.
• There is 'Protection' against two buyers using the same image in a similar way (eg same industry/country, etc).
• The buyer obtains exclusive use of an image under the terms of the license: these terms may affect the use, media, territory and/or duration in which the image can by used by other buyers.
• A future function will be that before the buyer purchases the image, he/she can also look up its prior alamy.com sales history.
• Rights Protection can be an advantage for high-profile projects such as ad campaigns and promotions.
• Pricing for this type of license varies depending on the terms requested. Customers of alamy.com would typically pay between 20-30% more to guarantee an exclusive license for their project.

Royalty-Free Licensing
This is another type of non-exclusive licensing, but the buyer does not have to specify intended use, media, territory and duration.

• The buyer pays a one-off fee - he/she does not have to pay royalties to contributors on a use-by-use basis.
• The buyer can use it as many times as he/she likes, where he/she likes.
• The buyer will not know who else is using the image.
• The price is governed by file size.

Model and Property Releases
When an image depicts a model and/or property, it is sometimes necessary to obtain a release form. The license and use chosen will determine if a form is needed. Please note that it is the responsibility of the image buyer to check the release status of an image. See our Release guidelines for explanations of adult and property releases.