MicrostockGroup

I tend to put my travel images as RM.  Despite the general rule of "no release is required when shot from the street" (and I know this is not valid for most modern buidings), I think they should not be available for commercial goods and advertisement.  I mean, I don't think it's right that someone buys an image of a tourist attraction and then sells postcards out of it, without the building owner (private or government) earning anything, or advertises condoms using a photo of the Eiffel Tower or the Big Ben...  Yet, there are tons of such images sold as RF and sites allow them without any question, so maybe I'm overzealous.

I can set the restrictions I want in MyLoupe. But in Alamy, if I answer Yes to "Does this picture contain property that needs a release for commercial use?" and then No to "Do you have property releases?", it says I should set it to Editorial only. 

So what is the best strategy: say No the need of a release and add my restrictions, or use Editorial only as suggested?

Regards,
Adelaide

I think their rules are rather clear: If a property release would be needed for commercial use, it can only be sold as editorial, licensed, unless you have a release. In principle, that goes for most buildings, but in real life, it's not a problem for public property.

When you click for no model and/or property release, it's the buyer's responsibility to use the image properly. Then of course, it's difficult to safeguard against fools and criminals, but that goes for most sides of life   

I think postcards are considered editorial or art btw., so no release should be needed. Publishing postcards from cities would be prohibitively complicated if releases for anything and anybody in a photo was needed. A postcard isn't commercial in any other sense than the fact that it's sold, but so are newspapers and paintings.

This is what I got from Alamy:


I didn't see that in many images I checked.  If I do, I'll be in disavantage - a buyer may be afraid to buy it.


It doesn't really answer me.  I saw tons of London Eye images that had no such restriction at all, and I told them this, and they agreed it should be set for editorial only.  They could give us a hint of what is really ok for non-editorial purporses.   

And one thing I learnt: I was setting restrictions wrong!  What you set is what can NOT be done with that image.  I thought you had to included what the image can be used for (restricted to this).  Was this obvious for everyone? 

So, for editorial use, you have in fact to add many restrictions:

Regards,
Adelaide

What's a good reason in your opinion to not set L?

Peter,

My concern is that, saying they require a release that I don't have when this release is actually not necessary, may keep buyers away.  If the image can be used for commercial use - advertisement, postcards, whatever - I would like to clearly allow mine for this too.

Regards,
Adelaide