Digital Rights Management

How much control do you want to maintain over your images?  If you visit stock photography sites and read their terms of service you will soon be glassy eyed from all the legal terminology and still have no clear idea of what you can or can't do with their products. 

Most sites advertise "Royalty Free" images.  What a joke.  If you read the actual terms, the limits on what you can do with the images may not be "Royalties" but if you plan to make money using them, you better be prepared to pay up.  Some go into painful detail about all the limits on what you can do.  Ten or twelve page documents in small font sizes are not unusual. 

What I don't understand is how these sellers expect to enforce their terms.  I suppose if you plan to print thousands of calendars or posters the printing companies will want proof you have rights to the images.  However, it's difficult for me to see how a small web design company which uses edited images on a template would ever be noticed.

I have been thinking about the various approaches and have not yet come to a conclusion as to what is best for me.  I lean toward the fewest limitations because I think anything more is probably a waste of effort.  However, it's hard to look at stock photography sites charging $50 or $100 each for images and not be tempted to try and restrict unpaid picture usage. 

To be continued..