A Caution About Today's Royalty Free Stock Photo Industry

Stock photography has always been one of the best values in photography. Under the rights managed system, you knew what you were getting, where the image had been and could license the image without much concern about someone else using the same image for a competing product, or a product or service that could tarnish your name.

Enter the royalty free stock photo business model. Along with the lower price and overall disregard for the usage level of the image came a loss of control over what the image was used for and who else might be using it.

There were abuses, but these remained at a level that could almost be tolerated. Then came microstock. The door was thrown open wide to anyone with a point and shoot camera to contribute images and to anyone with a computer and a credit card to download the images. As both those licensing and those consuming the images tend to be non-professionals, images are now being abused in ways we never once dreamed possible. The more unfortunate consequense of microstock is that is has dragged the other stock photo agencies into the mire with them.

What does that mean for you? The money you saved on imagry by using cheap, royalty free or microstock photos could cost you big. These are some of the examples of abuses that I have observed and been told about by clients:

• A model at a large agency decided to save money shooting her portfolio by trading for a stock photo shoot. She was later cast for a Revlon shoot only to lose the job when the art director realized one of the headshots sold as stock had been used to sell an adult product.
• The stock photo of a male model in a swimming pool used to promote a cruise ship line was also used to market a pool party for a male prostitution service at the same time.
• A magazine had to pull and reprint the entire issue when a billboard using the same stock photo as the cover was erected in the same city for a dating service.

Unfortunately, such abuses are not uncommon. As one royalty free stock photo agency told me when attempting to address the abuse of one of my images: "It is sad that so many feel they can ignore the licenses. It is unfortunately very common and there is little we can do about it with the volume of downloads we receive."

With the current non-professional environment in the stock photo industry, any image is prone to abuse. The royalty free stock photo of the loving young couple in a beautiful mountain setting used to market a high end resort works equally well to market a medication for herpes. While the latter use is a violation of the license, today's stock photo industry is not taking the steps necessary to prevent such violations.

Therefore I believe it is to the benefit of all concerned - particularly that of my clients - to return to a rights managed system. Doing so allows my clients to have the peace of mind of knowing the image will not also be used in a means that could damage thier reputations or harm their marketing efforts.

Images that have been previously sold as royalty free will still be available at prices common to the royalty free stock photo industry. However, uses which could cast a negative light on anyone associated with the creation or use of the image will not be permitted.