COPYRIGHT CHARGE ADVICE

I've been approached by a firm who would like to purchase a copyrighted image from me for internet use. Their offer was £55 for one image.

My work usually sold as prints for £110 and I'm worried that by allowing internet publication my work will be exploited on the internet by people who may steal it off their site, and I will not be able to sell prints of this image. Therefore I'm making half of the amount I ought to be.

How much do you charge for copyright permissions, and what kind of usage time frame would you give?

Please help asap.

Thanks x

You give them a LICENSE to use your image, NEVER a copyright, unless they're willing to pay through the nose for it.

Ask them how they want to use the image. Is it for web only? Do they plan to use it to sell products? Is it for an event or something they're hosting?

One year license to use an image usually (dependent on the use) is generally $500.00 per image. Not sure how much that translates into pounds, but that's taking into consideration any revenue they may make off of your image. If they balk at that, they might want to be reminded (nicely, of course) that if they're using it for monetary gain, the $500.00 investment usually pays for itself in products sold. People generally are visual creatures, and if they see something they like, they buy it. Besides, you have your own equipment to upkeep, bills to pay, and I'm sure you'd like to eat too. The fee will help with that, and really should be factored into everything you do, sales wise.

If they want to purchase full rights, it's a whole other ballgame. You have to consider that you're not going to be making money off of this image by re-selling it or licensing it, and must take into account the lost revenue. You'd have to decide how much this image is worth to you. I've seen full copyrights sold for an image (meaning they can use it how they see fit and wouldn't have to buy another license from you) going from anywhere from 3k-5k. The downside to this, is that you won't be able to use the image, at all.

BTW, 55 pounds sounds pretty low. Maybe they're just testing if they can get the image off of you for cheap.

Hi,

If it's just being used as a small image, then the price might be reasonable. But, there are many variables, and with web usage, the length of time it's licensed for is the biggest variable.

Also, if the image isn't too large, Internet resolution (72 to 100 ppi) makes it's theft and use elsewhere unlikely. In fact, it might actually help drive traffic to you and assist selling prints of the image.

If the site wishing to use it would be willing to put "Copyright, your name" or "All rights reserved, your name" on or adjacent to the image and were willing to make that a live link back to your web site - where people can come to buy prints - you might consider allowing them to use it at the lower price they offered.

Their offer to you is just the opening salvo in a negotiation. As you can see, there are several things you can do to help protect the image, and even turn this to your advantage as a form of self-promotion.