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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:
- Licenced - L
- Licenced Rights Protected - RP
| Rights Managed Licences | Royalty Free - RF | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| Licenced - L | Rights Protected - RP | ||
| 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 “Licenced” in ”Manage images”. | Select “Licenced - Rights Protected” 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 L 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. Note, images where the logo, trademark or copyrighted building is incidental (e.g. it’s visible but isn’t the central focus) can be submitted as Royalty Free.
- Subjects which should never be Royalty Free
- 30 St Mary Axe, London (The Gherkin)
- Adidas
- Air shows and display teams such as the Red Arrows
- American Museum of Natural History (AMNH)
- Ant Farm - The Cadillac Ranch
- Apple logo
- Atomium, Brussels
- Baltimore & Ohio Railroad Museum
- Biltmore Estate
- Bluetooth Logo
- Boston Public Library
- Buildings built by Frank LLoyd Wright
- Celebrities
- Chatsworth House
- Chicago Board of Trade
- Chrysler Building, NYC
- CN Tower, Toronto
- Coca Cola logo
- Concorde
- Crayola-crayons
- Currency, if all the note is visible
- Dance Steps on Broadway
- Department of Treasury Seal
- Disney Logos, Theme Parks & Products
- Eiffel Tower Light Show at night
- Empire State Building
- European Union Flag
- Faber-Castell pencils
- Famous trophies or awards such as Grammy’s, Emmy’s, Oscars, Brit awards, BAFTA’s etc.
- Federation Square, Melbourne
- Flatiron Building
- Graceland
- Guggenheim Museum
- Harley Davidson – logo and bikes
- Henry Moore sculptures
- Hershey’s Kiss Chocolates
- Hollywood Walk of Fame
- Hollywood Sign
- International Fountain, Seattle
- John Deere Machinery (Farm machinery/Tractors)
- Kew Gardens
- La Defense, Paris
- Las Vegas Theme Hotels
- Lego Products
- Lone Cypress at Pebble Beach
- Longwood Gardens
- Louvre Pyramid, Paris
- Mann's Chinese Theatre
- Masonic Square & Compass
- Mattel Inc.
- McDonald’s logo
- Merlion of Singapore
- Millennium Park, Chicago
- Milwaukee Art Museum
- Mississippi, Delta Queen and Natchez Paddle Steamers
- Monterey Bay Aquarium
- Mystic Aquarium & Institute for Exploration
- New Orleans Superdome
- Newport Mansions
- NY Stock Exchange
- Oak Alley Plantation, Louisiana
- Olympic Athletes, Logo (the Olympic Rings) and torch
- Pike Place Market, Seattle
- Princeton University
- Radio City New York
- Red Cross Emblem
- Rock and Roll Hall of Fame (Cleveland, Ohio)
- Rockefeller Center
- Rubik’s and/or Rubik’s Cube
- Sam Houston Statue
- Samsung Phones
- Scrabble
- Sears Tower
- Seattle Space Needle
- Shrine of Remembrance, Melbourne
- Smithsonian Institution
- Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum
- Superman and DC Comics
- Swan Boats in Boston’s Public Gardens
- Sweetheart Conversation Heart Candy
- Sydney Opera House
- Taipei 101
- The British Airways London Eye
- The Getty, The Getty Centre, & The J. Paul Getty Museum.
- The London Underground Sign
- The Pacific Exchange, The mercantile Exchange, etc.
- The TGV train
- Transamerica Pyramid
- Tupperware Tower
- Uluru (Ayers Rock)
- Universal Studios
- University of Alabama
- US Military Service Insignia
- Valencia- City of arts and sciences
- Virginia House
- Wall street bull
- Williamsburg re-enactment
- 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 Protected 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.