Dan Lewis

Image Usage Rights Agreement

The first step, when you see one of your images online, is to contact the person who posts it. In most cases, the person will be happy to take it downstairs. You may not even have knew that they had infringed your copyright. An email or message to the person is a much faster solution than other more aggressive options. If you work with commercial or editorial clients, you must have a photo license agreement. This should indicate the parameters of how the image can be used. A photo license agreement is usually used when a photographer wants to concede his work for use without selling the copyright to the image. In this way, the photographer always receives recognition of the image and they are paid for its use. Copyrighted materials used in new works of art or modified images can be considered fair because they are transformative. However, it may be advisable to obtain permission from the copyright holder so as not to be confronted with possible copyright infringement at a later date or to prove that your work is a fair use. Customers often want an exclusive license to ensure that images created for their brand do not appear elsewhere. In some cases, they are not used in the end by their competitors.

The contract defines the conditions for the licensee to use this photo. In the photo license agreement, the licensee is the one who owns the copyright or has the right to use the image. The licensee is the person who obtains the rights to use the image. A licensee can also obtain the rights to sublicensing the image – in this case, the licensee may be a licensee in a sublicensing contract. The owner of a copyright or creator can grant an image to as many people as he wants. If the owner wants to grant the image to more than one person, he would grant non-exclusive image rights. However, some brands may need exclusive rights to use the image, which means that they are the only ones to hold a license for that image during the agreement. Where exclusive rights of use are granted, the licensee has the exclusive right to grant images on which he holds the rights. Even the author can no longer use his own work, unless it has been agreed otherwise. In addition, you can contractually stipulate that the use is reserved for the author. Editorial rights generally apply to images used for educational purposes.

Licensed editorial images can be used for blogs, newspapers, magazines, print publications and other educational resources. They are all considered non-commercial uses. Do you want to terminate a licensing agreement? The termination of an agreement is in accordance with the common rules for the continuation of contracts. If the contract has been concluded for a fixed term, it automatically expires at the end of the agreed term. If the license agreement is indefinite, you need a declaration of intent from one party (unilateral termination) or both parties (reciprocal decision). If you give exclusivity to a customer, it prohibits you from getting more income from your images by conceding it to third parties, or by stick photography. If you don`t own the copyright for an image but want to use it, you need a license agreement. By a licensing agreement, the copyright holder can authorize the use of the image in a certain way.