Entrepreneur.com Article | The Beginner's Guide to Using Stock Images Without Getting Sued
Compliance makes sure that your hard-earned money stays in your pocket, or better yet reinvested, not squandered in an avoidable legal dispute. As companies spend more and more time creating content-marketing strategies to reach their customers, sourcing the assets they use becomes more and more important.
It's easy to think that stock assets would be the way to go over producing your own content, especially considering how little stock sites charge for their use. The reality is, it's actually not as cheap as you'd think if you're remaining compliant and using the images they're intended. Let me be clear: you're not to blame, it's simply that licensing stock assets is a lot more complicated than you probably realize.
For example, if you're a small business with one employee who creates all of your advertising documents, then a standard royalty-free license is definitely fitting for your business model. In this scenario, your employee can head over to a stock site, license the image on their computer and create the marketing document you need. As long as you stay within the maximum allotted number of people who'll be viewing the asset and also that you only use the asset once, then you're in compliance.
However, let's assuming you have another employee work on the same file you bought with a standard license -- then you're immediately out of compliance. A standard licensing agreement allows for a single user to access and use the file that you license.
This is why it's critical that you're aware of where you're licensing your files and what their licenses allow. Assuming that you're entering a licensing agreement with a photographer, videographer, graphic designer or simply buying your assets off of a stock photography website, here are some considerations to have prior to approving the purchase.
