I get "extended legal guarantee". What the heck is this? I am starting to hate IS more every day. I'll go check it out.
Thanks, Michael
Simply said: It's an insurance for the buyers. With a standard license, iStock/Getty take over up to $10,000 in legal costs in case the customer gets sued for using an image. The client can extend that insurance up to $250,000. As Getty/iStock are the ones taking those risks all upon themselves, they also keep the money. That's what they decided and told us years ago. As usual we didn't get asked.
Shutterstock has a similar limited liability in their terms ($10,000 as well) and as SSTK does not tell us the exact type of license they give away with each of their SOD agreements, we will also never find out if they sell a higher insurance without paying us for it in exchange.