Copyright and Licensing
Copyright and Licensing is very important to any creative business involving visual media. In fact, the protection of these rights can play a part in how much you pay for certain services. Permission to use our intellectual property is granted via a license. Licensing is one of the core concepts of any true photography business. The value of that license is dictated by the end use of the media. For example, photos licensed to a business for use in a national advertisement will grant longer term use than photos licensed to a realtor to market a property. Consequently, the value of the license is higher for the business to use the photos.
Copyright
Copyright is a form of protection grounded in the U.S. Constitution and granted by law for original works. This includes most services provided by Gate Images, such as photographs and video. Our work is protected, the moment a photo or video is taken with our cameras.
Please understand that as you operate your business, copyright is not just limited to the media you purchase from Gate Images. Copyright law protects many things, including media you may get from others such as headshots, or even the design of your brand logo. It is best practice to understand the terms of the media you are receiving because even if no terms are given, you do not own that media. Consider how scary it may be to find out you don’t own the logo for your own brand! Get the terms clear!
Throughout our photography process and the marketing efforts of any third party, the original works remain our intellectual property. Gate Images does not grant you permission to sell, distribute, or give our copyrighted works without our permission. We reserve the right to use the photos as we wish for reasons including our own marketing efforts, relicensing, sales, or other distribution. In summary, if you wish to learn more about copyright law, please click here.
We do respect homeowners privacy, and will not use for marketing, distribute, or relicense any photos containing valuables, sensitive information, or any other property that invades privacy or can be deemed sensitive. Examples include photographs or video including safes, jewelry or other valuables, family photos or portraits, medicine, weapons, etc.
Additionally, if you do decide to purchase a license for a particular photo for brand marketing, you can in fact, request that we alter the photo to change or remove private or sensitive objects.
Licensing
When you purchase Gate Images photos, we are granting you a license for rights to use the images for your specific marketing needs. During any review of our rates, you will notice a difference depending on the use of the photos. For example, a Realtor will need to use our photos anywhere from a couple weeks, to maybe a year, rarely more. Meanwhile, an AirBnb can potentially use our photos for the next 10 years. A national campaign for a business advertisement may run over the next few months, while being disseminated to 100,000 plus people in a publication, where a small boutique may use our photos for their website of 100 visitors a day. With that said, these different scenarios result in different licensing rates, and these rates are baked into your costs, Therefore, we offer five different types of licenses to standardize the costs.
License types
- Short-term License (For Realtors)
- Limited License
- Premium Limited License (standard for vacation rental properties, AirBnb, etc.)
- Exclusive license (standard for commercial businesses)
- Full Copyright Transfer
- Relicense
- Valid for as long as the property is actively for sale. Once the property has been sold, the license is terminated, and you no longer have rights to use the photos.
- You are not allowed to use the photos for any reasons beyond marketing the property as a property for sale.
- Does not grant you ownership of the photos.
- You cannot redistribute the photos in any manner.
- Photos can be relicensed to other Realtors, or third parties, if the property is no longer an active listing for you.
- Valid for a term up to two (2) years. After this, the license is terminated. A new license may be obtained for continued use.
- Grants you uses on websites, in print publications, videos, and other brand marketing efforts. In publications, photo credit must be given to Gate Images.
- Applies for web or publication uses not exceeding 1,000,000 viewers in one calendar year, respectively.
- Does not grant you ownership of the photos.
- You cannot redistribute the photos in any manner.
- Photos can be relicensed to other Realtors, or third parties, if the property is no longer an active listing for you.
- Valid for a term of 10 years. After this, the license can be extended for continued use.
- Photos are licensed exclusively to you and we cannot relicense to any third party.
- Grants you uses on websites, in print publications, videos, and other brand marketing efforts. In publications, photo credit must be given to Gate Images.
- Applies for web or publication uses not exceeding 10,000,000 viewers in one calendar year, respectively.
- Does not grant you ownership of the photos.
- You cannot redistribute the photos in any way.
- The rights to ownership of the photos are transferred to you.
- You can do as you wish with the photos, including sell, or redistribute.
- We no longer have rights to use the photos for any reason without your permission.
Gate Images reserves the right to relicense photos taken, as the owner of the photos, to any 3rd party with a need for use, unless you have been granted a Full Copyright Transfer. We prefer to retake photos, but often times if the state of the home has not changed, the photos will turn out to be very similar. Out of respect for privacy, any photos containing any sensitive or valuable belongings will not be relicensed, if property ownership has changed. This includes safes, jewelry, weapons, medicine, photos of previous owners, or other property that is sensitive in nature. Relicensed photos can also be paired with other services such as aerials, interior only photos, or exterior only photos.
Additionally, we do not relicense video or 3D virtual tours under any circumstances.
What does all of this mean?
Realtors
Realtors make up most of the day-to-day clients we deal with at Gate Images. Therefore, we want to make sure you are clear about expectations when handling the media you receive from us.
- The media you receive from us, is owned by us. You are granted permission to use that media via a license.
- Zillow 3D Tours and Matterport 3D Tours are owned by those respective companies, as we use their proprietary technology to create them. There is a yearly fee to keep a Matterport 3D Tour active. The first year is included in your rate.
- We do not mind homeowners having a copy of the photos for keepsake, but they should not cancel the sale with you, and use the photos to market their property for rent, or redistribute in any manner.
- Scammers are known for stealing photos to advertise fraudulent listings. Keeping our policies in mind, helps greatly in fighting against these efforts, keeps our costs lower, and prevents us from having the need to watermark our media.
short-term rentals, interior designers, commercial businesses, etc.
All other types of projects excluding real estate listings, receive our High-End Package by standard. This maximizes the potential of your marketing, and the appropriate license cost is baked in to your rate. Other things to note:
- The media you receive from us, is owned by us. You are granted permission to use that media via a license, unless you purchase a Full Copyright Transfer.
- Matterport 3D Tours are owned by Matterport, as we use their proprietary technology to create them. There is a yearly fee to keep a Matterport 3D Tour active. The first year is included in your rate.
- If the case use or needs for the photos changes, please contact us!