Royalty Free does not mean Free in any way. It just means that you pay only once for the image and then you can use it as many times as you want, maybe. The term “royalties” is broadly applied to a payment charged for the use or sale of a person’s copyright, such as a book or song, a play, an electrical circuit, or the design of an item. physical, as part of a car engine. . The charge of a royalty generally depends on the number of times the original is doubled. When it comes to paying for graphic images, there seems to be a wide range of different arrangements within a huge image market.
My interest in researching this topic was motivated by a desire to find photo sources, preferably, but not necessarily free, for use by e-book cover designers and home sellers in creating virtual product covers. What I found is that you need to be careful around all graphics sites, especially those that use the words “Free” or “Royalty-free” in their promotional text.
Some sites are much simpler than others, although I advise you to read the fine print on all of them carefully. There are some that are definitely royalty free and you pay once for the image and use it however you want, possibly subject to some conditions. Both prices and conditions vary widely.
It is not unusual for a site to demand credit or for a link to be placed near any image it uses. In many situations, this requirement could be a real inconvenience, so consider carefully before committing to a payment or downloading images with this restriction. On the other hand, there are situations where a reasonable request and compliance can be a simple matter, even a pleasure to let the photographer know that their work is appreciated.
Some other sites blatantly claim on the home page that they are “Free” but read the details and they happen to be royalty free only. It is annoying that their actual terms and conditions are also difficult to find and understand. Many require you to sign up with an email address and I’ve done this with more than a few, but happily I haven’t received any heavy marketing emails from any of them as a result.
Another thing that brought out my research was that there must be a whole world of publishers with no shortage of cash resources. Possibly, a glossy magazine distributed nationally could justify paying an annual membership fee of $ 680.
Obviously, these sites are not directed at me, and probably not at you either. If you check one of them in your searches, remember that we live in a free enterprise society, discard the best of them and move on because there are many other graphics sites and some of them have fantastic material at sensible prices or even free and I mean FREE really.
Regardless of which sites you visit while searching for images, keep in mind that copyright is a serious international legal matter and you need to know where you stand vis-à-vis the rightful owner of anything you want to use, especially if you are going to display the image. on the cover page. of a book or product that you hope to sell in large quantities.
You certainly don’t want a call from an attorney demanding half of everything you’ve done.
your sales. This is not as far-fetched as it may sound as such cases have happened and the law will likely be on the side of the copyright owner if you have actually ignored their posted terms, so be careful and keep track of your downloads.
For my future reference, I often make a text file with details of the terms and conditions and the site URL. Then I save it with the images in the folder to which I download them. If there is a confirmation email from the site, I will also save a text copy in the folder.
To conclude on an optimistic note, if you are prepared to look around a bit, it is very
You will likely find a good free or inexpensive photo for most, if not all, of the topics you probably want to write a book about.
