Image Licence Types

Gekko Images sells images under both Rights-managed and Royalty-free licences. Gekko Images does not dictate the licence type, we leave that to each photographer to decide. Gekko provides the systems required to sell by either licence type.

We recognise that many members do not know which licence type to choose. In these cases we provide guidance so that members are choosing the best licence for each image. This applies to star rating as well. See the star rating section below.

Rights-managed licence:

Images licenced under the RM system are made available to clients based upon a pre agreed set of usages. Our price calculator provide the final price based upon the selections that the client makes for the image use. This includes:

• Where it will be used
• What it will be used for
• How it will be used
• How many people will view the image
• How long the image will be used for

At the end of this process a licence is generated which details the usage. The buyer agrees to this usage and is billed accordingly. The member is sent a copy of the licence agreement with the usage details included.

As the licence nears expiry emails are sent to all parties. Members can also track image usage throuh their homepage.

Royalty-free licence:

Images licenced under the RF system are made available to clients as a one-off payment. Once the buyer has bought the licence they may continue to use the image, within the terms of the licence, as long and as often as they please.

When Should I use RF and RM?

We have some very simple guidelines to help you make the appropriate decision about which licence to use for which images.

Put simply.... You should only use RM for your very best images. Images that you believe you can demand a higher price for due to some intrinsic quality that the image has. Generally speaking images should meet at lease one of the following:

• Image has talent release profession models
• Image has very high production value
• Image is costly and difficult to reproduce
• Image has some unique content which cannot be obtained easily
• Image is a very good example of a given subject

Images that do not meet any of the above criteria should be set to RF.