Is Licensing Necessary?

the licensing thing is optional, and should be used carefully. only use it when you totally understand what your getting yourself into. since they don't share with you who bought it, you'll never know who might be using it legally or not. and depending on the image, it could haunt you if used for the wrong thing.

so do your homework first.


---Mike Savad
http://www.MikeSavad.com

Ya that's what I was thinking. I figured I best leave it alone since I don't understand it. hehe!
Thank you for the feed back. Much appreciate it.

things like contracts, what the differences are between the types etc, all that stuff needs an education. many jump in without thinking about what will happen down the line. i don't sell anything in that area of the site.

if someone needs something from me, i do it myself, i don't use a middleman taking a cut. plus i'll know who they are and what it will be used for. the license section just makes it easier for timid artists to license stuff.

---Mike Savad
http://www.MikeSavad.com

Necessary is the wrong word - it's another avenue to selling or being paid for someone using your image. Not from FAA, but another POD, I got over $500 this last year - that cushions my being able to continue on FAA - which is my primary POD for what - at least another 5 years with two premium accounts.

It could be another way for people to find your images.

Michel
✈ http://pics.travelnotes.org/.

Not required or recommended for everyone. It takes an understanding of what licensing is all about. Its a commercial market as opposed to a consumer market. You are licensing to designers who will be using your imaged for commercial purposes as opposed to a home owner buying something for their living room.

There are legal ramifications for the type of images you can offer to the commercial market. You also have to understand that the buyer will be getting a digital copy of your file and is expected to use it only for the licences type they purchased but you have no information about the buyer so you can't track its usage.

You won't even have a clue to its usage.

Thank you all so much! This is all very helpful information. I clearly need to do some serious reading and make sure I fully understand all this, before I get in to it.
I was looking around and I see most people use the "Royalty Free"? It seems to be the common one.

Royalty fee means that someone can use it endlessly. This also means multiple parties can license the same image at the same time. For example two political candidates could end up using the same image.

Rights managed means they buy it for a specific usage and time frame. For example you might license an image for a book cover. RM keep the image exclusive for your book for the length of the license.

Usually RF is done when you expect to license the same image for lots of uses. Like a tomato on a white background. RM is typically images of higher quality and perhaps more specific uses. Something that might only get licensed once in its lifetime.

Someone expecting to pay more for RM wouldn't want to see it already licensed RF. They are looking for something special and exclusive.

My guess is most people who are licensing here haven't really though it through so I wouldn't go by what you see.

Ahhh I see the difference, makes sense.
Thank you for explaining this, much appreciate it!