Rights Managed

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Rights Managed is often used to describe photographs for which the right to reproduce them are managed, and thus the individual, organization, or business wishing to use the photograph must first obtain a license for the use of that image specific to the type of use.

For example, whereas a royalty-free image of the United States Capitol, taken by a photographer who has submitted their image to a company who offers a "one price fits all" type of use, would be allowed to use that photograph either as a part of their purchase of that collection, or for a single fee based not upon the use type, but rather on the resolution of the image (a.k.a. buying by the pixel). Typically, these are prosaic images that are out of date, or otherwise lacking in uniqueness and creativity.

A rights managed image is typically produced by a professional photographer, one who recognizes the value of their image and licenses uses based upon the extent of the use, and the scope of benefit by the person or company using the image.

The concept of "rights managed" comes from copyright, a statute that allows authors and publishers of works to be the sole arbiter of the exploitation of that work, and to set fees associated with that work. The economic incentives afforded by copyright give artists one way to make a living through their creative works.

An example of how rights managed works benefit you and the image's publisher might be that you simply have a local business' newsletter which is printed monthly, and which prints 400 copies. A fee for this small use might be $100, because the benefit the business receives from the use is small, so the fee is comparable. This same image, used editorially in a national publication, reaching 15 million people might have a fee of between $500 and $1000, for the same image. The concept here is that when the benefit to the organization increases, so too does the fee paid to the publisher.