A question for POD contributors

[Andy Holmes]

Does anyone that has images, simultaneously on stock and POD sites, place any restrictions on stock usage for personal use ?

 

If so how do you do it ?

 

The reason that I ask, is that after reading a discussion thread on another site, it appears that an artist lost out on a sale because the buyer bought an RM image much cheaper than the artist's mark up on POD.

 

Out of curiosity I looked at Alamy's RM prices for personal use, and was surprised to find that 50MB files were available for €10 for personal use.

 

Now I can't control a buyer purchasing a competitors image, but I can control me competing against myself.

I've never used restrictions before, but it appears that I can specify personal use only, but can't make a restriction, excluding personal use.

 

Any help on whether or how to proceed, would be much appreciated. 

[Martin P Wilson]

It has been suggested in posts previously that restrictions are not really very reliable as a way of controlling usage. That was mostly in connection with limitations on use for ethical or similar reasons, but I don't see why the same issues may exist for other restrictions.

[losdemas]

 

Does anyone that has images, simultaneously on stock and POD sites, place any restrictions on stock usage for personal use ?

 

I wouldn't worry much about it, because I believe that artist experienced an exceptional case. Unless you are in the editorial business, very few POD buyers have any knowledge about stock agencies. I don't think "normal" people would bother searching all the agencies for a specific image and go through the hassle of registering, so that they can buy it cheaper. 

Just my two cents 

 

Cheers,

Philippe

 

 

+1

 

Don't worry about it.

 

You want some fish, you go to the local supermarket (these days).  You don't go to Billingsgate (or your local equivalent) unless you're a trader (EDIT: or a photographer!).

[Andy Holmes]

Thanks all for your thoughts.

 

@Martin. I don't know if you've used restrictions, but it's regulated by a series of drop down boxes with limited options to select from. I can easily see why implementing such moral choices, would be difficult to express. Restricting a specific sector should in principle, be far simpler.

 

@Philippe, thanks for taking the time to come over and comment.

 

To a certain extent, undercutting myself is only part of the problem.

I'm not sure that I'm overly happy to hand over a 50MB file capable of printing large poster sizes, for half (or less through a distributor) of €10, whether they've seen my POD offerings to compare against, or not.

 

@ Danny, I understand that in principle they're serving different markets, but there definitely is crossover. So long as you're aware of the relatively low licencing fees, and are happy with them, there's no problem.

From my perspective though, just as with the newspaper scheme, I'm not convinced that this is valuing my work adequately, so I'm examining my options. 

[losdemas]

I do see your point, Andy.  My few sales on POD sites have generally outstripped licensing values by a large margin.  As my post suggested, I would tend to agree with Philippe, though: for the very few crossovers that there are (at present), I think that removing certain files from licensing and restricting the use to POD only is more likely to result in lowering your income stream than increasing it!

 

I'll be keeping an eye on it...

 

BTW...the images are available from half your stated rate (too painful to repeat ), depending on country selected...

[Andy Holmes]

Danny, I don't intend to remove images from licencing completely, but am considering trying to place a restriction on personal use.

 

If there is so little crossover, there should be little risk to income, compared to the upside of higher POD sales.

[mickfly]

Andy, I have some images in both stock and POD but my criteria for selection is different and even when I put the same image in both places I usually make the POD one an altered image, so if someone liked the POD one, they wouldn't find the exact same one if they knew where to look on a stock site, and they probably wouldn't want to hang it on their wall.
I haven't considered restricting personal file downloads here (if it's possible), and I have seen photographers with their own websites who allow digital downloads of full res files for personal use, on trust of course, but not for $15!

[Andy Holmes]

"Andy, I have some images in both stock and POD but my criteria for selection is different and even when I put the same image in both places I usually make the POD one an altered image, so if someone liked the POD one, they wouldn't find the exact same one if they knew where to look on a stock site, and they probably wouldn't want to hang it on their wall."

 

Thanks for that Mick.

 

My photography doesn't really lend itself to artist effects, but I might consider it when adding new work.

 

"I haven't considered restricting personal file downloads here (if it's possible), and I have seen photographers with their own websites who allow digital downloads of full res files for personal use, on trust of course, but not for $15!"

 

Which is really the point. I'm not looking to restrict personal licencing on principle, or because of potential breach of licence conditions.

I just think that the personal licence is too cheap for the size of file offered.