Image Licensing And Copyright

Image licensing is one of those subjects about which authors know little and wish to learn even less. Unfortunately, you are in business now and you simply cannot afford to remain ignorant of copyright and licensing law. One day, it might just come back to bite you on the bum.

Surf ‘n’ Steal

The temptation is obvious. You spend a happy afternoon surfing the internet and collect various images along the way which you are convinced could be worked up into beautiful book covers which will help to sell your books and make you rich.

All you have to do is send whatever images you find to me and I will do the rest, right?

Wrong!

In just the same way as copyright in your story is automatically vested in you as soon as you write it, so copyright in pictures is vested in the artist or photographer as soon as they create an image. It belongs to them, not to you. If I started to sell your books as if they were my own, you would be outraged. After all, you are the one who has put the work into your story and you reasonably expect to be rewarded for any commercial success it may have.

I would be stealing and I would also be breaking the law.

Why should artists feel any differently?

For this reason, as a principled professional, you should only use images for which you have been granted a licence. If you don’t, then the copyright owner is perfectly within his or her rights to demand you stop using the image on your book cover and even to sue you for a proportion of your book’s sales because their image helped you to sell your book.

Difference Between Licence And Copyright

Most legal systems grant automatic copyright in a work to its creator as soon as it is created. Some countries do not respect copyright as strongly as others but that is another story and beyond the scope of this short article.

Copyright means that you own the work you have just made, usually for the period of your lifetime and a period beyond that. The exact point when copyright expires differs from country to country. Unless you explicitly sell your copyright, it is always yours.

So let us imagine that a photographer has taken a stunning photograph of a model that you are just dying to use as part of your professionally designed fantasy or romance book cover. The problem is this: the photographer owns the copyright. He is not going to go to all the trouble of setting up the shoot just to sell his copyright to you for a few dollars. What he will do, however, is license his image to you on either a commercial or a non-commercial basis. In other words, he will give you permission to use his photograph whilst still retaining ownership of it.

There are different types of license. Some photographers may allow you to use their images for free provided you are not using it for commercial purposes. So if you want to create a poster for your child’s school play, you might be able to use an image free of charge. If you were promoting a charity event, the same license terms might also apply.

If you want to use an image commercially, however, you will almost certainly be expected to pay a license fee. And you need to check the terms carefully.

An exclusive licence means that you pay a fee safe in the knowledge that no one else will ever be allowed to use the image for as long as you continue to pay the fee. Exclusive licences tend to be extremely expensive and it is unlikely ever to be financially worthwhile for self-published authors and musicians.

A non-exclusive licence is the more common way images are licensed. This simply means that the copyright owner can license you … and him over there … and the lady standing in the corner … and as many other people as want to pay to use his image. Be warned! You might find a hundred other authors in your genre are all using the same model to sell their books!

You may think that a non-exclusive licence gives you the right to use an image in any way you please. Most of the time, that is a reasonable assumption but be careful. Remember: a non-exclusive licence gives the copyright owner the right to licence many people. That is all that the term means. A non-exclusive licence may restrict you to – say – 5,000 copies before you have to buy another licence. It may restrict you to a particular period of time – perhaps five years. It may restrict the sort of media for which you may use the image or where you may use the image. It all depends.

Image Libraries And Licensing

Many artists and photographers license their images via image libraries. The advantages of this to the artist are obvious. Just as authors use Amazon, iBooks, Google Play, Barnes & Nobe and Kobo as platforms from which to sell their books, so artists and photographers use image libraries such as Shutterstock to license their images.

There are advantages for authors in using image libraries as well. License fees per image are generally low and there are few restrictions on how the images can be used. Image libraries also tend to operate according to standard license arrangements – although you should always check the licensing for the image you want before you pay the fee!

Some artists may license their works directly from their own websites. That is fine, too, although I would warn you to check the terms of such licences very carefully before you purchase. You should never, never assume you can do just what you want with someone else’s work. A few minutes spent reading the terms and conditions could save a lot of heartache later.

Buying a non-exclusive license to use an image also means that there is no danger either of a legal claim from the copyright owner for a share of royalties or of the copyright owner contacting Amazon (or whoever) to demand that your book be taken down. I leave it to you to imagine what Amazon might have to say following such a request!

FantasyBookDesign And Licensing

As a professional graphic designer with a business reputation of my own to protect, I always need to know either that you are the copyright owner or that you have the permission of the copyright owner to use the images you want me to transform.

In general, I prefer to purchase the licence for you from an image library or artist’s website just so that I know you have the right to use it. However, so long as you can show me that you have purchased a licence – by showing me an invoice, for example – then I will be happy!