Richard
If the Image is on other sites as RM, should not the photographer add restrictions on the other sites, for the same image and useage?
David
Hi David,
The simple answer is no, buying a licensed or rights managed image has nothing to do with affording the buyer with any form of exclusivity to the image.
However what it does do is give the buyer an opportunity to enquire as to it's previous and any current licenses, and then they can make the decision as to whether they buy it or not.
For a contributor it means they can sell a license for an image to be used in different industry sectors at different prices according to usage, size etc. And keep a copy of any such license sales, and if they so desire they can set restrictions to maintain control over what sectors the image is used in.
So for example if I have the same image for sale as a L/RM image on four different sites and I sell it through say Alamy to the banking industry for three years it does not mean I have to set any restrictions on any of the other sites, however if I'm contacted by another site and asked for it's previous license history I have to tell them, then the buyer can make their decisions as to whether it's previous usage conflicts with their requirements.
But say a banker buys the license for my image one day there is nothing to stop another banker buying and using the same image the next day.
To stop this they need to buy the license with an exclusivity deal attached, and in that case the site will contact you and negotiate a deal and then restrictions need to be set on the other sites.
This can happen automatically if you set your images for sale as RP - Rights Protected, in that case the site handles the negotiation on your behalf.
Some sites require image exclusivity, but that doesn't mean the actual license is any different to what I've described above.
In short a Licensed or Rights Managed license is not actually much different to a RF one except you pay differing amounts according to what the image is being used for and you have a mild form of sales history.
A Rights Protected license is the only one in which a buyer can safeguard themselves from either another company in the same industry from using the image for a set period of time or they can even purchase full user rights which means nobody else can use it for a set period of time. At which point in the Macro world the contributor starts rubbing his/her hands.
Hope I made it understandable.