Best Business Practices for Photographers [222]
Media: Products | Merchandise | Poster (Retail Poster) | Printed
Placement: Single Placement on Front Side
Size: Up To Full Area Image | Up To 30 x 40 Inch Media
Versions: Single Version
Quantity: Any Quantity of Displays
Duration: Up to 3 Years Region: Broad International Region | Worldwide
Language: All Languages
Industry: Arts and Entertainment
Exclusivity: Non-Exclusive
Recognize in this example that you are licensing product rights to the band for which a model release would definitely be required. So, use language similar to "Model releases not applicable because image is being licensed to the entity appearing in the image, and the granting of this license is contingent upon the licensor granting to themselves the right to use the photograph for this purpose." It sounds circular and possibly silly, but if you read the case study in Chapter 20 regarding the textiles company I had an issue with, you will see that they attempted this same defense during our negotiations.
Evolving Toward PLUS
Going through the process of generating a client-specific license with exacting language and then embedding that language as natural language and machine-readable code is the epitome of a best business practice, and you should do it. However, while on assignment you may have time constraints or be missing information that is required to produce that machine-readable code or otherwise do things by the book. It has been said of military operations that no plan survives the first encounter with the enemy. Evolving that sentiment to licensing your photography, it could be said that no perfect license survives the client's first (and repeated) calls asking where the image is.
Suppose 20 percent of your clients are consumer editorial, and your client tells you they don't know how big the photos will run. If you just want the natural language version of the PLUS licensing language, building up a template for that could save you a lot of time, and cutting and pasting that text into your contracts, on the invoice, and into the metadata will add nominal additional time to your workflow. You could then produce a template for the 30 percent of your clients that are trade-magazine clients, the 40 percent of your clients that are PR/event-related, and the 10 percent that are personal uses (in other words, weddings, rites of passage, and so on). Here is an example of a template and how it would look for that first 20 percent that are editorial. Once you understand this, play around with making templates on the UsePlus.com website for the other types of clients, so you can easily cut and paste the language below during the process of your image ingestion, when you are at the stage of adding metadata.
Editorial boilerplate example:
Media: Editorial | Periodicals | Magazine (All Magazine Types) | Printed
Placement: Single Placement on Any Interior Page
Size: Any Size Image | Any Size Media Versions: Single Issue Quantity: Any Quantity
Duration: Up to 10 Years Region: Northern America | USA
Language: All Languages Industry: Publishing Media
Exclusivity: Non-Exclusive
Suppose, the client also wants Internet use:
Media: Editorial | Periodicals | Magazine (All Magazine Types) | Internet Website
Placement: Single Placement on Secondary Page
Size: Any Size Image | Any Size Media
Versions: Single Issue
Quantity: Any Quantity
Duration: Up to 10 Years
Region: Northern America | USA
Language: All Languages
Industry: Publishing Media
Exclusivity: Non-Exclusive
You might ask why the duration is up to 10 years. You are granting this publication the right to use the photo, but you don't know when they will exercise that right. That said, they can only exercise it once, hence the repeated use of the word "single."
If