The Art of Buying and Selling Stock Photos

‘Legal’ Category Archive

Introducing Bigstock’s Tax Center

Wednesday, June 16th, 2010

As you know, we’ve been making some serious to improvements at Bigstock over the last several months. We’ve just rolled out a series of new contributor features, including charts and graphs to help you keep better track of your earnings.

In addition, we’re announcing the addition of a tax center to help our contributors submit the proper tax forms. We realize it’s not the most fun thing we’ve ever introduced, but it’s necessary to make sure we comply with tax laws in the U.S., where our company is based.

To learn more, visit the Bigstock Tax Center for answers to your questions.

Posted in Announcements, Legal | 1 Comment »

150+ Things You Can’t Show In A Commercial Stock Image

Tuesday, May 11th, 2010

Experienced stock photographers know to secure model and property releases when shooting recognizable people or locations. But there are some subjects which, for legal and intellectual property reasons, cannot be used in a commercial license without additional permission. For example, a crayon with a recognizable Crayola swirl may be covered by that company’s trademark.

Below, we’re publishing a list of many known trademark, copyright and intellectually property issues, compiled by our colleagues at Shutterstock. (Please note that this list is not all-inclusive.)

We are also taking steps to make sure every image in the Bigstock library is in compliance, which means some images we previously accepted are being pulled from the library. This is the right thing to do for our customers and for intellectual property holders, and it’s a way to make sure all our contributors are held to the same rules.

If you have any questions or see an image that’s an obvious violation of these rules, Contact Us. We’ll do our best to remove or re-tag these images that violate these guidelines.

Note: For the most current version of this list, please visit Shutterbuzz.

(more…)

Tags: , ,
Posted in Legal | 2 Comments »

Model and Property Releases 101

Wednesday, April 21st, 2010

If you’re like most photographers, you’d rather do photography than paperwork. That said, a little bit of paperwork is sometimes necessary. If you shoot stock photos, model and property releases are a vital part of your work. You’ll need releases if you want stock sites like Bigstock to accept your photos, and releases can protect you if there’s a legal question about one of your photos.

This post goes over some of the basics about releases. If you have questions that aren’t answered here, leave a comment at the end of this post or write to support@bigstock.com. We may address additional questions in a future post.

When does a photo need a model release?

All photos of recognizable people should have a model release. (Bigstock makes exceptions only for newsworthy images submitted for editorial usage; those images are labeled so buyers know they can’t be used commercially.)

When does a photo need a property release?

All images shot on private property, including the interiors of homes and businesses, should have a property release signed by the property owner. As with model releases, the sole exception is newsworthy editorial images.

(more…)

Tags: ,
Posted in Legal, Tips | 4 Comments »