Licences
When customers buy images they purchase the right to use them in a particular way. This is called a licence and you must choose one of three types:
- Royalty Free (RF)
- Rights Managed Licences:
- Rights Managed (RM)
- Rights Managed - E (RM - E)
| Rights Managed Licences | Royalty Free - RF | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| Rights Managed (RM) | Rights Managed Exclusive (RM - E) | ||
| Fees | The customer pays a licence fee each time they use the image. | The customer pays a one-off fee. | |
| Use | The customer must specify the intended use, media, territory and duration for each usage. | The customer can use it multiple times and in multiple projects within the terms of the licence. | |
| Price | The price is based on intended use. | Price is 20-30% more to guarantee an exclusive licence. | Price is determined by the size of the image purchased. |
| Exclusivity | Other customers can also purchase and use the image under the same licence. | When a customer obtains exclusive use of an image under the terms of the licence, other customers cannot purchase the image under the same licence. | You cannot have exclusive use of an RF image. Other customers can purchase and use the image as they wish. |
| Permission | If a customer wants exclusive use of an image we will ask your permission. | If a customer wants exclusive use of an image we don’t need to ask your permission. | N/A |
| Restrictions | You can apply restrictions. | You cannot apply restrictions. | |
| Releases | You must have model and property releases for relevant subject matter in an image. If you don’t have them you can set restrictions to licence the image for “Editorial use only”. | You must have model and property releases for relevant subject matter in an image. This is expected by the customer and will help to avoid legal issues. | |
| Choosing a licence | Select “Rights Managed” in ”Manage images”. | Select “Rights Managed - Exclusive” in ”Manage images”. | Select “Royalty Free” in ”Manage images”. |
Tips and legal considerations
To ensure customer confidence in your images and avoid potential legal problems:
- you cannot change the licence type for an image once it is set.
- you must not submit the same or similar images as different licence types.
- we may determine the licence type automatically from your answers to some of the annotation questions.
- to avoid legal issues you must never set a licence as RF (but only as RM with restrictions set for “Editorial use only”), if it:
- contains people or domestic buildings without releases.
- solely features a logo, trademark or copyrighted building - this is a copyright or trademark infringement.
- Subjects which should never be Royalty Free
- Accenture
- Adidas
- AIG
- Airshows (and display teams such as the Red Arrows)
- Airstream
- Allianz
- Amazon.com
- American Express
- Apple (logo)
- Apple Mac or ipod
- Armani
- Audi
- Avon
- Baltimore & Ohio Railroad Museum
- Band Aid
- Barbie
- Beijing National Stadium
- Bentley
- Beverly Hills Sign
- Bic
- Biltmore Hotel (& Estate)
- Bird's Nest Stadium
- Blackberry
- Bluetooth (logo)
- BMW
- Boston Public Library
- BP
- British Concord
- British Royal Residences
- Budweiser
- Burberry
- Busch Gardens
- Cadillac Ranch
- Canadian Coins
- Canon
- Car Freshener
- Cartier
- Caterpillar
- Chanel
- Charging Bull
- Chatsworth House
- Chevrolet
- Chicago Board of Trade
- Chicago Navy Pier
- Chrysler Building (NYC)
- CITI
- City of Arts and Sciences - Valencia
- CN Tower (Toronto)
- Coca Cola (logo)
- Coca Cola/ Coke/ Pepsi
- Coke
- Colgate
- Comic book
- Commodities Exchange
- Concord (e)
- Crayola (crayons)
- Crazy Horse Monument
- Cupid's Span
- DANONE
- Dartmouth College
- DELL
- Department of Treasury Seal
- Devil Ducky
- Dinosaur Museums
- Disney
- Disneyland
- Dolce Gabbana
- DuPont Gardens
- DVD logo
- EBay
- Eiffel Tower (Light Show at night)
- Emmy
- Empire State Building
- English Pound
- Epcot Center
- famous Trophies
- FedEx
- Ferrari
- FIFA
- Firewire
- Flatiron Building
- Ford
- Ford econoline
- Ford Mustang and Logo
- Frank Lloyd Wright (Buildings built by)
- Gap
- Garmin
- General Motors
- Getty
- Gherkin
- Gillette
- Goldman Sach
- Graceland
- Grammy
- Grand Ole Opry
- Grauman's Chinese Theatre
- Gucci
- H&M
- Harley Davidson
- Harley-Davidson ( logo and bikes)
- Hearst Castle
- Heinz
- Hennessy
- Hershey ( Kiss Chocolates)
- Hewlett Packard
- Hollywood Sign
- Hollywood walk of fame
- Hollywood Walk of Stars (Walk of Fame)
- Honda
- Honda Civic
- HSBC
- Hyundai
- IBM
- IBS Bible
- IKEA
- iMac
- Indy 500
- Intel
- ipad
- iPhone
- iPod
- Jaguar
- Japanese Bullet Train
- Jeep
- John Deere (Farm machinery/Tractors)
- John Hancock Tower
- Johnson Johnson
- JP Morgan
- Kawasaki
- Kellogg's
- KFC
- Kleenex
- Kodak
- Korean War Veterans Memorial in Washington DC
- Lamborghini
- Lego (Products)
- Levi
- Lexus
- Lincoln
- Little Mermaid
- Logo
- London Eye
- London Underground
- London underground maps
- Lone Cypress tree
- Longwood Gardens
- L'Oreal
- Louvre Museum
- LTI Black Taxi
- Mac
- MacDonald's
- Macintosh
- Map
- Marlboro
- Marmalade - jar shape & label are issues
- Marriott
- Maserati
- Mattel
- Mattel (Inc)
- McDonalds (logo)
- Mercantile Exchange
- Mercedes Benz
- Merrill Lynch
- Michelin
- Microsoft
- Millennium Park (Chicago)
- Millennium Wheel
- Moet
- Monterey Bay Aquarium
- Morgan Stanley
- Motorola
- Mystic Marine Museum
- NASA
- NASCAR
- NBA
- Nescafe
- Nestle
- New Orleans Superdome
- New York Stock Exchange
- Newport
- Newport Mansion
- Nike
- Nikon
- Nintendo
- NIV Bible
- Nivea
- Nokia
- NYSE
- Oak Alley Plantation
- Olympus
- Oracle
- Oscar award statue
- Pacific Exchange
- Paddle Boats
- Panasonic
- Peeps
- Pepsi
- Philips
- Photoshop
- Pike Place Market (Seattle)
- Pizza Hut
- Playing Cards
- Polaroid
- Porsche
- Post-It
- Powerpoint - Microsoft
- Prada
- Pressman
- Princeton University
- Professional Racing Logo
- Rayban
- Red Cross ( Emblem)
- Red Cross Emblem
- Reuters
- Rock and Roll Hall of Fame (Cleveland, Ohio)
- Rockefeller Center
- Rolex
- Rolls Royce
- Rosslyn Chapel
- Rubber Ducky
- Rubik's Cube
- Sacagawea
- Sam Houston Statue
- Samsung
- San Diego Zoo
- San Galgano Abbey
- San Simeon Estate
- Scoopman
- Scrabble
- Sea World
- Sears
- Sears Tower
- Seattle International Fountain
- Shell
- Shinkansen
- Shrine of Remembrance, Melbourne
- Siemens
- Sistine Chapel
- Slinkies
- Slinky
- Smiley Face
- Smithsonian (Institution)
- Sony
- Sony and sony products
- Subaru
- Superdome
- Superman and DC comics
- Suzuki
- Swan Boats ( in Boston's Public Gardens)
- Swastika
- Sydney Opera House
- Taipei 101
- Taipei Financial Center
- Tatty Teddy
- Taurus
- The Atomium
- The Gates
- The Green Dot
- Thunderbird
- Thunderbird Logo
- Tiffany
- Toyota
- Toyota Camry
- Trademark
- Tupperware
- Tupperware Tower
- UBS
- Uluru-Kata Tjuta
- UN
- Universal Studios
- University of Alabama
- UPS
- US Military Service Badge
- US Military Service Insignia
- Viewmaster
- Virgin
- Virginia House
- Visa
- Volkswagen
- x box
- Xerox
- Yahoo
- Yamaha
- YvesSaintLaurent
- ZARA
- we may tell you if we feel the licence type you have assigned is inappropriate.
- you can apply a default licence type to your images.
Exclusivity and rights control
- You can maintain the integrity of your rights protection because we report sales in real-time in your “Summary of Images sold”.
- When a customer buys a Rights Managed - Exclusive image we automatically prevent the future sale of the licence.
- If you sell an image exclusively elsewhere, you must restrict sales for that usage or territory for that image on Alamy.
Licence type selectionLicensing your images
- Go to My Alamy.
- Under “Organise images”, click “Manage images”.
- Select a licence from the options next to each image.
Further help
- Information on:
- The Alamy Forum - the answer may be there.