Types of stock photography licenses

Royalty free
Royalty Free stock photography gives the image buyer the option to use the image in as many ways as desired while only paying one fee. License pricing are generally lower with Royalty Free. This license is cost effective because you're choosing not to protect against competitive usage. The images are easy to use because you don’t need to determine or track usage and you are free to use in the images in multiple ways. Of course, there are also disadvantages. There is no protection against conflicting use by competitors and photographs offered in the Royalty Free domain are generally of lower content quality. It is important to understand that Royalty Free photos are more widely distributed and as a result less unique. Royalty Free licensing is the best choice when cost is a primary issue in your project, when you want to use a photo for multiple purpose, when you can live with the possibility of someone else using the same photo for the same purpose, and when you don't want to spend time defining your usage.

Rights Protected
Rights Protected license prices are generally higher then Royalty Free. In this case you have control of the license and you are guaranteed to be protected against having the photo used by a direct competitor for a competing use. Records of every use of a photo or image are kept to avoid conflicting rights between competing end users. Usually, images tend to be higher quality in content and subject matter for Rights Protected license. Rights protected images are licensed for a specific period of time and for a specific application which is negotiated in advance. The reason one would use rights protected imagery is to prevent competitors from using the same image in the same marketplace. Only after the prescribed period has elapsed is the image free to be licensed for another application. This is the "traditional" licensing model and it has been around for a long time, so a big part of stock photography business is found in this area. Rights protection can be an advantage for high-profile projects such as ad campaigns and promotions. You should be aware that because of their advantages, Rights Protected photographs are more expensive (sometimes much more expensive). Also the purchasing process takes more time because determining the final price requires the use of a calculation tool, or custom pricing if needed. When the term of the license expires - renewal repeats this process. So it seems that Rights Protected licensing is the best choice when your project requires high quality photography and when it could be negatively affected by a competitor using the same photo.

Rights Managed
Rights Managed is similar to Rights Protected but does not guarantee exclusiveness unless an additional fee is paid. Usually, license prices with Rights Managed are somewhere in between Rights Managed and Royalty Free. Rights Managed means that you pay for a license to use the stock photo for a specific use for a defined time period. Usually, the licensing is not transferable. They are only granted to the person or company who purchased them. You may not sell, rent, loan, give, sublicense, or otherwise transfer the Photo or the right to reproduce the Photo to someone else.

Advantages and Disadvantages
Before deciding what type of image licensing to use, consider your image requirements. If you intend to use images for multiple applications and your market is local rather than national or international, you should consider royalty free imagery. Another factor is price. You can purchase a royalty free CD-ROM as little as $30 or as high as $300 or you can buy a single image for $1 or for $50. The advantages of using royalty free images is that they are often readily available and at a low price. A disadvantage is that you don't know who is using the same image. The main disadvantage of buying rights protected imagery is the price, which is higher than royalty free. With royalty free the image quality might not be as good as with rights protected imagery, but this will be determined by where you purchase your images. Some stock photography agencies have higher standards than others. In contrast, if you want to use the image for a corporate brand or a national or international campaign and you don't want your competitors potentially using the same image, rights protected imagery is a better option. This will cost more but will give you more options as far as licensing is concerned.

There are also different variations of these types of photo licensing. Each stock agency defines how and where you can use the photograph and for this reason you should carefully read the Terms and the License Agreement.