Hi,

I always have many problems, when deciding whether I should put my photo to standard RF or Editorial collection. Some sites like 123RF make it easy and make that selection for me. But as the result of different approaches by different sites I have many images on one site as Standard RF, on the other as Editorial RF. Is it ok like that? I do not put any image as RF on one site, when it is RM on the other, this thing is clear. I take mostly travel photos(nature, architecture, etc.) and some of the buildings are protected by Intellectual Property Rights and sometimes happens I am not aware of it. For example I took a photo of Atomium in Belgium. Some sites rejected these images, some took them as Standard RF and some as Editorial. Recently I have found these two pages about image restrictions:
http://www.shutterstock.com/buzz/legal/stock-photo-restrictions
http://wiki.gettyimages.com/

Shutterstock says:

The Atomium
Located in Brussels, Belgium.
The building is a large model structure of an iron molecule.
Unacceptable for editorial or commercial use.

Istock/Getty says:

Located in Brussels and built for the 1958 Brussels World Fair (Expo 58) the Atomium monument is a representation of a unit of iron crystal.
Imagery of the Atomium should be avoided in Royalty-Free content.
The Atomium may, however, be featured in Editorial content.

If I base my knowledge on what Istock/Getty says it is ok having photos of Atomium as Editorial, but not as Standard RF and I have my Atomium photos distributed under both licensing. What does it mean for me as a photographer? Can I have any problems because of it? Some of the stock sites have in their agreements that photographer is the one responsible for his content and any legal issues that may it cause. On the other hand I have read some articles saying that the one that should be aware of these legal issues is the publisher, not the photographer. How it is in a reality? These days I have nightmares, because I have sold on Pixmac an extended RF license of my photo showing Atomium itself. 

First sale! I'm really proud of it!  It was good to invest $30.
http://fineartamerica.com/saleannouncement.html?id=f5b8cf12db910664c3dda81db26ae0f5

Thank you all for your advices!

ETA: also (and this is going to be controversial) - I would not put a lot of expectations into what you are gong to earn with Symbiostock. Unless you are tremendously and unusually successful you are not going to make almost any money with Symbiostock. The agencies are where the money is and there is no likelihood of that changing. I am being honest here but will get minus votes for saying this. Only people with very many existing customers are going to make any money with Symbiostock. And stock buyers, in general, do not have artist loyalty.

I do not expect big money, but it will be nice to sell also directly. Selling even one or two photos a month could pay for hosting and can be better than some so called "Low Earners". Will be a good start. Searching Google I do encounter many Symbiostock photos well placed in my search results so that I look rather positive into it.

Quote from: Ed on November 30, 2013, 21:41

I think you need to take it one step at a time....do you have a work visa in the UK or just a student visa?

Ed, he doesn't need any visa whatsoever.
Here is your homework :
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/European_Union

EU gives opportunity, why not to use it UK, Ireland or Denmark are probably best places to start your small business so that I'm trying to find out what are pros and cons.

Yes to self employment - but no to registering a company. You do not want to start a company. I think you know that.

Yes, I just want to be self employed somewhere.

If you are travelling there should be no need to pay tax anywhere - assuming you do not stay in any particular country long enough to be considered tax resident (the minimum period I know of is 90 days). Live on the web - airbnb.com and a great portfolio is all you need. If only I had a great portfolio I would be off ...

But to sell photos on my own website(Symbiostock) I have to be at least self employed or not? I mean when travelling and not staying 90 days in one country.

airbnb.com in an option, for now I was using www.couchsurfing.com quite a lot, but is much more stressful 

I paid 30 dollars about month ago, uploaded 695 photos, but still no sales... More than 10000 views, but probably most of it is a work of bots... Lately I have discovered that search results promote local "artists" so that I switched my location to NY and it seems to me that I have more traffic from US now Now let's wait and see what will be.
http://fineartamerica.com/profiles/karol-kozlowski.html

Hi

I am from Poland. I have just finished my BSc and probably I will go soon to live in the UK for several months and also planning to enroll for a master course somewhere in the UK. I do microstock and pay taxes here in Poland(without being self-employed), but I would like to start my Symbiostock site so that I should registered a company/self-employment. I have read HMRC website and in my opinion registering as a sole trader in the UK could be a good idea(better than doing it in Poland). From what I have read there is no problem to do it as I am EU citizen, but I need to provide UK address. For sure I will rent a room. Let's say that I register as a sole trader on this address. What happens if I move to another flat? I like travel photography, after finishing my studies I would like to travel around the world. Can I stay being sole trader in the UK without having any address there? Does HMRC send anything to a physical address? To be clear, I would like to pay taxes online in the UK both on Symbiostock and microstock income and try it full-time. A part from that I will have to pay NI class 2 and will get a British pension if I live long enough , am I right? Still don't know what to do with an insurance... How is it with NHS? Is it all a good idea?

Karol