Dealing with Demands for "All Rights" to Your Images

Chances are that you've been asked at least once by a client for all rights to your images, or have been asked for a buyout. Most clients really don't want a buyout, they will settle for an alternative solution from you that will solve their problem. It's usually a problem that comes from the different needs that your client has now, compared to what they needed in the past, when marketing and licensing was a simpler process.

Just as technology has helped you in distributing your images, new marketing options have opened for your clients. Licensing and pricing of an image is no longer confined to just one type of usage, and a single image today may be used in a variety of mediums over varying lengths of time. In the client's mind, this usually is the reasoning behind their request for "All Rights". They can't be bothered to get in touch with you and go through a negotiation every time they want to use an image for the smaller, more targeted aspects of their marketing, so they suggest a buyout.

Remember to explain to them that a stock production is an assignment created and funded, in advance, by you in which you hope to make a profit by licensing shares of the production to a large group of different buyers. Be sure that they understand that buying the entire production for the cost of one or two shares (often what this type of client has in mind) isn't realistic. If they want to buy all shares of the self assignment, not only will you need to charge enough to make back your initial investment on this production, but you will need to make a healthy profit as well, to make up for your advancing the money for the job, and to cover the cost of your speculative productions that weren't successful. Any good business person understands profit.

Once you have the client's attention it's time to start isolating what their real need is. Usually they don't really need a buyout, they need a way to use an image over a specific period of time, freely, for often unknown purposes, without having to re-negotiate every time they use it.

To solve this problem many photographers use fotoQuote to work out a "Rights Package". This is a license, for a specific period of time, to use an image for the client's basic needs. For example, the license could allow them to use the image for one year for all collateral and web use, and would exclude advertising in magazines and on television. How you price the package depends on the size of the client and their expected return on the use of your image.

You can tailor specific packages to include some unlimited and exclusive usages or a combination of both. The natural by-product of you being able to address the variety of specific needs your client has, is that you will both have a very clear understanding of how your images can be used. Shortly before their usage expires, be sure to use our previous entiltled "Money in Your Pocket" to send them a notice asking if they would like to renew the license.