Creative Licensing

Creative Licensing

What is the difference between Royalty Free and Rights Managed licensing?  Royalty Free means paying a one-time fee for a creative asset, and the price is usually based on image size in pixels.  The higher the resolution, the higher the price.  But you don’t have to pay an on-going use fee.  Rights Managed means that the agency contracted to manage the work (image, illustration, etc.) will monitor the use of the work.  The price is based on many factors and often will require on-going payments to use the item.  The formula used to determine price includes how the asset will be used, how long the asset will be used, what the distribution will be. 

When I went to iStockphoto, the way I determined the price was that I needed a Limited Run Extended License in order to resell the t-shirts.  I wasn’t completely clear on the pricing structure, but from what I could see was that each credit was $0.95 each, and for an XLarge photo, it would cost 20 credits ($19).  For a limited run Extended License, it costs 125 credits ($118.75).  So I came up with a cost of approximately $138 for licensing of an image.

The question of how will licensing impact your career is an important issue.  Any designer that does not pay close attention to licensing issues is leaving him/herself-as well as his clients-open to serious liability and legal issues.  In this time of images everywhere and the openness of the internet, ownership and creative copyright is a hot topic and big place of contention.  As designers, we want our own original work to be respected and protected, and we should be diligent to do the same for other designers and creators.  Being careful about licensing is a way to keep the integrity of the industry, as well as our own.  Not to mention the legal problems and expense it can cause.