Licensing
Copyright is big business. Not necessarily for the photographers, graphic artists or website developers but for the law firms and the larger companies that pursue copyright infringement. Just like a painting may be worth millions of dollars, the rights to use an image can also be worth thousands of dollars. A small cab company in Taunton commissioned a website to be developed in 2001 and the developer who built the site, had used one small licensed image. The cab company later received a legal letter requesting payment for £1,300 for a one year license for the use of that one small photograph. Increasingly, website owners are being asked to pay licensing fees for the cost of images and graphics that have been used on their website by their website developers. Cheap website development may turn out to be rather costly. http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2007/feb/01/copyright.newmedia
How to avoid image and graphic licensing problems?
It is important to document any images, graphics, copy writing and programming used to produce your website. Written contracts or letters from website developers, graphic artists, photographers and programmers outlining ownership and copyright is very important. You should also enquire about any ongoing costs and if you did not source photos, graphics or copy, you should ask your developer, where these items were sourced from. Do not assume that your website developer understands your legal obligations and they may very well be outsourcing your project to another party that may make their living from using copyrighted material. If you cannot determine with absolute certainty that the material is not copyrighted, then you should avoid using it.
Avoid using royalty free images, that you cannot guarantee the source of the image. Many stock photo libraries allow photographers to upload images for sale but the big problem is when users upload content and claim it as their own.
Wholly owned content
Many businesses both large and small businesses are moving towards wholly owned content. The only way to be absolutely certain that the content supplied is 100% wholly owned with no ongoing commissions or royalties is to take the photos yourself or commission a photographer to take the photos for you, ensuring the contract states that you will own the content of all photos produced in the shoot. Finding graphic artists, copywriters, and programmers that provide you with a license to use their work indefinitely with no ongoing fees or charges, also enables you to ensure your website content is wholly owned.
The great benefit of wholly owned content is the assurance that there will be no increases in licensing or royalties and that no nasty legal letters requesting payment.The disadvantage of wholly owned content is expense. It is much cheaper to buy a managed rights image, ie.an image that is licensed for you to use and the price of the license based on your requirements.than to commission an image to be taken for you. The risk of commissioning your own images that you will have to accept whatever is produced on the day or organize another photo shoot. Taking photographs takes time and outdoor photos are highly dependent on the weather. To read more about rights managed image licensing, please read Image Licensing, which details the process of licensing rights managed images from a trusted photo agency.
Wholly owned websites
Unlike images, wholly owned websites requires ongoing maintenance due to changes in computers, browsers, and operating systems. Licensing fees are important for software development because licensing generally ensures ongoing support. If you have a asp.net website, changing developers is difficult as the code is generally compiled and even if you have access to the hosting details, the source code is usually on the developer's computer and the project needs to be reset up on another computer, if you decide to change developers. The model of wholly owned content for database websites is precarious because generally good developers are difficult to source and without a developer that has ongoing commitment to support your website, everything built can become undone with changes to server software and client software.
Every website developer has different terms and conditions, and even a HTML website could be licensed and you may not be able to update a HTML website without going back to your original developer. Passion Computing ensure that customers understand the terms of development and apart from Passion Computing's managed CMS, all websites produced fall under the category of "wholly owned content". Clients agree that the supply of all materials (graphics, logos, images, content) does not infringe on another's copyright. Terms and Conditions of Website Production and receive the rights to use the work produced for an indefinite period of time.