Can I buy a cheap royalty free image to compose with mine?

[Ivan Savini]

Hi to all,

the question is: can I buy a cheap royalty free image from a microstock agency to make a collage with mine (for example to change background or sky) and sell here on alamy my image as rights managed for commercial use?

 

[cbimages]

Ivan, I think you are confused. Your contact with Alamy, section 4.2 clearly states "

1. (i) You are the Copyright Owner of the Images or have authority from the Copyright Owner to enter into the Contract and that the Copyright Owner is the sole owner free from any third party rights of the entire copyright and all other intellectual property rights throughout the World in the Image except for any rights that have previously been licensed or granted for the use of the Image/s, and that accordingly the Image/s do not infringe upon any third party copyright, trade mark, moral right or other intellectual property rights; or (ii) the Image has been supplied to you to distribute under contract for the uses for which they are proposed to be licensed; or (iii) the Image is entirely free from copyright and no attribution is required."
   
   Therefore unless you buy the copyright to the royalty free (or any other) image you want to add to your own, then you do not own copyright of the image. If you add it to one of your images, then for that part of the image, you do not own copyright and cannot load the image to Alamy, or any other place that requires you to be the copyright holder. Just because you buy the right to use an image, does not mean you have bought the copyright. 

 

[Joseph Clemson]

You have to own the copyright of any image you submit to Alamy. If you use a part of someone else's image then the image is no longer entirely your own. 

 

There's nothing to stop you using elements of other images of your own to change skies or backgrounds - I know other contributors here have mentioned doing it. However, you should be wary of doing it on editorial images, which are supposed to be submitted with minimal editing.

[Ivan Savini]

3 hours ago, Joseph Clemson said:

You have to own the copyright of any image you submit to Alamy. If you use a part of someone else's image then the image is no longer entirely your own. 

 

There's nothing to stop you using elements of other images of your own to change skies or backgrounds - I know other contributors here have mentioned doing it. However, you should be wary of doing it on editorial images, which are supposed to be submitted with minimal editing.

Thank you for the answer Joseph,

I agree with you off course, I wrote expressly of royalty free to be sure the original photo has a license less restrictive of mine here on alamy.

 

For example if I want to submit an image good for a cover book with theme "tropical beach" I could have in archive a good foreground but I still need a background with palms that is not in my archive...

I know that this is the work made normally by a graphic designer buying two separate images, but, in my mind, to improve my competitivity with millions of images one way can be to give you the "ready to use image for that purpose".

 

Let me know what you think about it.

[Joseph Clemson]

As far as I know you cannot use a photograph or part of a photograph taken by another photographer and then submit the combined photo to Alamy as your own work.  it doesn't matter whether it is RF or not, the issue is that another photographer owns the copyright on the photo you may plan to use, and they alone retain the right to licence it.

 

If an end user chooses to licence both photos and combine them in a layout of their own choosing, they are may be at liberty to do that, but we as contributors cannot take another photographer's copyright work, in whole or in part, and then submit it to Alamy in our own name.

 

If you need to improve an image in the way you describe, the only options are to re-shoot the image in more favourable conditions, or shoot another image yourself which gives you  he background you desire, enabling you to produce a composite image of which you own the copyright of all the elements in the image..

[spacecadet]

As Joseph says, the first consideration is that it would be a breach of your contributor contract because you wouldn't own the cp I'm entirely ignorant of MS contracts, but my understanding is the same as Joseph's- only the copyright holder can sub-license an image in this way. Your MS licence enables you to make your composite, but not then to license it yourself.

 

[Ivan Savini]

13 hours ago, spacecadet said:

As Joseph says, the first consideration is that it would be a breach of your contributor contract because you wouldn't own the cp I'm entirely ignorant of MS contracts, but my understanding is the same as Joseph's- only the copyright holder can sub-license an image in this way. Your MS licence enables you to make your composite, but not then to license it yourself.

 

Thank you guys, really.

I hope you will excuse me to be petulant but let me imagine this situation in legal terms:

One photographer has sold a photo to me with RF license, yes the original photo has still copyright of the owner but is on the market;

me or a graphic designer make an artistic job over the photo as part of a new composition, probably the graphic designer sell the image as the new cover of AcDc album for 100millions copy and I... just want sell MY artwork composition in Alamy for who are searching for a cover album photograph.

 

I see a lot of really good artistic composition on getty, or 500px.... are you seying me that every element of the image is on the archive of the author?

I don't mean a simple photo editing, I'm compliant with you, I mean a graphic job…(for example: Last day I've read an article celebrating the travel to the moon, in the column capital there was an image of a red cabriolet car running in the space with the earth in the background and the driver was an astronaut…. the article spoke about imminent space turism...)

mind you, I'm new, and I don't want to be smart! I'm trying to understand this world ... as a photographer it's understandable, as digital artist is frustrating.

[Inchiquin]

Yes it may be frustrating, but it's a straightforward legal issue. If you submit images to Alamy you have certified that the copyright in your images belongs entirely to you. If you use someone else's work then you are in breach of your contract with Alamy.

 

Alan

[Ivan Savini]

Quote

14 hours ago, Inchiquin said:

Yes it may be frustrating, but it's a straightforward legal issue. If you submit images to Alamy you have certified that the copyright in your images belongs entirely to you. If you use someone else's work then you are in breach of your contract with Alamy.

 

Alan

OK, thank you Inchiquin for your time.

okay, okay, I understand, I come back in the ranks.