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General Stock Discussion / Agenices views on stock photos of people on erotica books
« on: February 04, 2014, 13:49 »
I don't know if you have noticed, but the e-book industry have exploded the last year or so. Selfpublished authors are growing in numbers and the "erotica" genre is huge. Just on Amazon there are over 150 000 titles in that genre and that is just one of the venues where the books are sold. Many of these self published authors are using micro stock photos on their covers. I have come across some pretty disturbing examples on how images of mine are being used on covers lately. And it is not just the "romance with an erotic twist" either, it is pretty hardcore stuff. Titles like "big c*cks in every h*ole" type of thing, and it is not only images of models in lingerie for example, some are just portraits of fully dressed normal girls where the author have put in hardcore titles. To me this is a clear violation of the license terms where it usually says that images cannot be used in pornographic or defamatory uses.
After been contacting a few authors about this I got the feeling that some of them where convinced that this would be an ok usage. I got curious and
sent an e-mail to all micro stock agencies asking about their view about this. I did not say that I was a contributor. I wanted to hear what they would say to an image buyer. I just asked if it would be ok to use a stock photo from their agency on an erotica book.
Shutterstock, Fotolia, Dreamstime, Envato, Canstockphoto and 123rf all replied that this was not an allowed usage according to their license terms.
Depositphotos, however said that it was totally ok with them, that they did not consider erotica books to be pornography.
So you might want to reconsider putting RF people images for sale on Depositphotos.
Edit: After being in contact with Depositphotos again, we have received a different response. After reviewing some examples of covers that we sent them, the management/CEO has informed us that this is not an approved use according to their license terms. Photos from Depositphotos can not be used on erotica.
I am glad that all micro stock agencies share this view, they just need to be better informing the buyers about this now.
After been contacting a few authors about this I got the feeling that some of them where convinced that this would be an ok usage. I got curious and
sent an e-mail to all micro stock agencies asking about their view about this. I did not say that I was a contributor. I wanted to hear what they would say to an image buyer. I just asked if it would be ok to use a stock photo from their agency on an erotica book.
Shutterstock, Fotolia, Dreamstime, Envato, Canstockphoto and 123rf all replied that this was not an allowed usage according to their license terms.
So you might want to reconsider putting RF people images for sale on Depositphotos.
Edit: After being in contact with Depositphotos again, we have received a different response. After reviewing some examples of covers that we sent them, the management/CEO has informed us that this is not an approved use according to their license terms. Photos from Depositphotos can not be used on erotica.
I am glad that all micro stock agencies share this view, they just need to be better informing the buyers about this now.
