Writing Effective Licenses
[by Judy Herrmann]
Like it or not, if you’re earning money with your photographs, you’re in the licensing business. No matter what kinds of clients you’re working with – commercial, editorial, or retail (personal portrait, weddings, fine art print sales) – your paperwork needs to include a written license.
A lot of the licenses I’ve seen photographers draft are much more convoluted than they need to be. So convoluted, that I often can’t even figure out what they’re trying to say!
Licenses don’t have to be complicated. They don’t need to include a lot of wherefore’s, whereby’s or other legalese. What they need to do is to outline – clearly, simply and in plain English – what the client can and can’t do with your images.
Most importantly, licenses don’t have to be in sentence or paragraph form. Both the ASMP and the Picture License Universal System (PLUS) recommend writing your licenses as a series of bullet points. You’ll find a comprehensive list of points to cover in the “How to write a License” section of ASMP’s licensing guide.
Licenses can cover a wide range of rights. You can license extremely limited use (e.g. one time insertion at a specific size in a specific edition of a specific magazine on a specific date). You can license extremely broad use (e.g. unlimited usage in any and all media throughout the Universe in perpetuity). You can also license anything in between those two extremes. You’ll find some common licensing bundles in the PlusPacks section of the PLUS website.
Be sure to include any conditions you want fulfilled in exchange for licensing your work. Not granting rights until our invoice has been paid in full is one of the conditions my studio always applies. You should also address whether or not the client can sub-license the images to third parties and if so under what conditions.
Providing vague, confusing or, worse yet, no written license at all, can lead to huge conflicts. Conflicts that will damage your relationship and may even land you in a lawsuit. Instead, try to write licenses that work as an effective communications tool. One that helps both you and your client protect your respective interests.
Acclaimed advertising & editorial photographer Judy Herrmann conducts seminars and one-on-one consultations that help people grow their businesses and build more satisfying careers. Judy@HSstudio.com
