Hi

If I purchase a stock photo and embed it in my design, then would I be committing plagiarism? Purchasing a stock photo only grants me a license to use, which is more in the copyright side of things. How about plagiarism though?

Thanks

Short answer to your original question: no.  Longer answer: you're creating a derivative work.  Just don't claim authorship of all the components of your work.  I would liken it to quoting other people's work in an article or book.  Acknowledge your sources and you're fine; claim them as your own words or the results of your own research rather than theirs and you're plagiarizing.

I'm neither a lawyer nor a legal scholar.  The way I think it works is that you can claim copyright to the derived work, which is your creation from the copyright-protected work of others.  A song that uses a sample from another song deserves protection, and so does your derived work.  It still depends on honoring the copyrights of its components.

^^ what he said, just don't claim to have taken the photo, and if you want to be ultra nice credit the photographer, but most licenses won't require it.