Rights Managed v Royalty Free

[Brian Yarvin]

 

- and you will only get the very rare odd sale here if the images already are on microstock. It is so easy today to find where you can get the same image much, much cheaper. 

 

 

Niels:

 

I'm interested in hearing more about your experiences mirroring Alamy images on microstock for a simple reason; your experience is vastly different than mine. With my work, images on a major micro site have no impact on Alamy sales or zooms at all. What sorts of work are you putting on micro and how do you explain the vast differences in customer intent? Indeed, I've known more than a few photo buyers in my time and none ever did the sort of price shopping you're alluding to.

 

In my experience - and with my work, most micro usages are through subscriptions and most Alamy sales are not. 

 

What are you seeing?

 

 

[Bill Brooks]

I am seeing terms for RM licenses such as, all uses for 25 years for a particular client.

 

That sounds like an RF license to me. That image is now in the wind. After a RM license with those terms, I can’t sell it for an exclusive use, so there is no benefit to RM for me.

 

On a one at a time basis, Microstock can be just as expensive as classic RF or RM . The low price is in subscription.

 

I think in most client’s minds, it is all microstock.

[John Mitchell]

 

I am seeing terms for RM licenses such as, all uses for 25 years for a particular client.

 

That sounds like an RF license to me. That image is now in the wind. After a RM license with those terms, I can’t sell it for an exclusive use, so there is no benefit to RM for me.

 

On a one at a time basis, Microstock can be just as expensive as classic RF or RM . The low price is in subscription.

 

I think in most client’s minds, it is all microstock.

 

 

Maybe so, but I find that editorial clients who contact me directly through my website are still happy with RM licensing. Also, they don't balk at the fees that I ask for, which have changed little over the years.

 

One advantage of RM licensing is that the sales are easier to track than RF ones -- e.g. for purposes of filing the annual DACS claim, etc.

[fogwalker]

More or less correct. If they are RF elsewhere they must be RF here.

 

However, be wary as RF elsewhere may allow 'unrecognisable' people to be included. At Alamy any part of any person in the picture - even tiny pinpricks in the distance, an unrecognisable body part or even a shadow - means it must  be RM here.

 

Also, I never tire of repeating that, in my humble opinion, uploading stacks of microstock images already available on other agencies simply devalues the value and uniqueness of the Alamy library, dragging down the prices we get here. I know lots of people do it and I know Alamy does nothing to discourage it, but it is still irksome.  I also realise that wholesale duplication of your microstock portfolio may not be your intention, in which case my apologies for casting aspersions, but this is an opportunity to make a general point which I believe cannot be overstated.

 

Hi, may I ask why a tiny unrecognizable person 2 km away at the edge of the photograph cannot be sold under RF license here and elsewhere it can?

[Niels Quist]

 

More or less correct. If they are RF elsewhere they must be RF here.

 

However, be wary as RF elsewhere may allow 'unrecognisable' people to be included. At Alamy any part of any person in the picture - even tiny pinpricks in the distance, an unrecognisable body part or even a shadow - means it must be RM here.

 

Also, I never tire of repeating that, in my humble opinion, uploading stacks of microstock images already available on other agencies simply devalues the value and uniqueness of the Alamy library, dragging down the prices we get here. I know lots of people do it and I know Alamy does nothing to discourage it, but it is still irksome. I also realise that wholesale duplication of your microstock portfolio may not be your intention, in which case my apologies for casting aspersions, but this is an opportunity to make a general point which I believe cannot be overstated.

Hi, may I ask why a tiny unrecognizable person 2 km away at the edge of the photograph cannot be sold under RF license here and elsewhere it can?

Because these are Alamy´s terms you will have to accept.

 

Why not remove the person if so tiny. By the way, there may also be property that would need a property release. This is Alamy and not microstock, terms are different.

 

Also remember that you cannot sell the same image as RF one place and RM at Alamy - it has to be the same licence type.