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We're thinkin' royalty free is looking pretty attractive at this point, right?
And it is attractive, from the “hassle quotient” point-of-view.
But in reality rights managed transactions are actually a little less hassle-intensive than you might imagine, while royalty free transactions are not completely “hassle free”:
The rights managed business model described above might seem like a lot of steps, but, in fact, this is the way the purchasing of stock photography has been conducted for many years, and photo agencies are quite skilled at streamlining the process for you. But it is a process, and it must be adhered to if you are purchasing a license for a rights managed image.
In addition, as more and more transactions become purely digital, often centering around increasingly sophisticated website functionality, the streamlining and ease-of-process becomes that much more simplified, even for rights managed purchases, including a lot of the “pricing and negotiating” headaches. It's getting easier, simpler, and moving “online” ...
What about royalty free transactions? Are they really “hassle free”?
Not exactly. The fact is that there's not a royalty free image agency in the world whose license actually lets you use the images “in any way you want as many times as you want.” There are all kinds of restrictions, most especially against “resale”. What's “resale”? Well, the definition varies from agency to agency, but the underlying concept is this: The photo agency is in the business of selling photos: They don't want to put you into that business. If the use you have in mind does do that-- puts you in the position of charging customers for the use of the images -- it's prohibited. Things like “templates”, where you sell a website template, for example, that contains pictures you've purchased from a royalty free agency. Prohibited. That's putting you into the business -- in part -- of “reselling” the pictures to others.
It's complicated; you might even call it a “hassle”. But it's part of the royalty free transaction.
Another issue with royalty free involves use of pictures with models in them. You cannot, under any circumstances at all, use a picture with a recognizable model in it for a use that is defamatory, libelous or humiliating, even if a model release has been signed.
In that sense, no, you absolutely cannot use the pictures “in any way you want”.
And, speaking of model releases, bear in mind that royalty free images can be trickier than rights managed when it comes to making sure the releases are “perfected”, meaning “valid and enforceable”.
These are hugely important issues for you to be fully aware of if you are buying any stock imagery from anyone, which is why we've prepared an essay that covers these model release issues specifically: What you need to know about Model Releases
In summary, yes, there are definitely some additional steps to using a rights managed image, and there's no way around it: but those steps are becoming easier to deal with by the day. Royalty free transactions do have the advantage of being hassle reduced -- but not altogether hassle “free”. Therefore, when deciding whether you are going to opt for a rights managed transaction or a royalty free transaction, have that decision weighted by all the relevant issues without being unduly swayed by an erroneous belief that the hassle difference between rights managed and royalty free is larger than it actually is.
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