A: No. It is specifically prohibited in our license to do so. Even if no money changes hands, this is equivalent to reselling the images, which is also prohibited.

The concept here is simple, and you will find this prohibition in virtually every photo agency license you see, but there is some confusion about it, so we'll try to clarify here:

Always bear in mind that you are not purchasing physical images: You are purchasing a license to use certain images ("intellectual property") under specific guidelines. Really what's happening is that a portion of the copyright is being licensed to you.

Assuming you are the Purchaser of Record, you and only you have the rights to take advantage of the license that has been purchased, and you may NOT "transfer" those rights to anyone else.

What does this "look like" in the real world? Let's take the most typical scenario first because it represents the original intention and the ongoing conceptual underpinning of the "royalty-free licensing model". A lot of the complexity or uncertainty about these issues can become clear when viewed within the context of this original intention:

You are a graphic designer (let's say...). You need images from time to time to use in projects you are assigned by clients (or, if you are working as an in-house designer in a Company, your company.)

For many years, the only way you could purchase an existing image (a "stock photograph") was within the rights protected business model whereby you purchased an image for the exact usage you had in mind, and only that one, specific usage, paying a price based upon the scope of that usage.

The "royalty-free" model broadened your rights. Instead of needing to purchase rights each time you wanted to use a picture, you could purchase an image-- or a disc of images-- for a set price and then use them as many times as you want.

But the basic idea remained the same: To provide you (and no one else) with a library of images that you could draw upon to complete projects assigned to you. If someone else wanted to use the images, they had to purchase the rights (from us) to do so.

That's why, for example, if you use a photo in a brochure you are designing for a client, your client has no rights to use the image in any way except the way you have used it in the brochure you designed for them, and you are not allowed to, in effect, resell the images to your clients. But that was and is the governing idea behind the royalty-free business model, and all rights and restrictions-- and permutations of them-- flow from and are guided by that underlying principle: One user, non-transferable, and not to be resold to anyone else; a tool for YOU to use to complete your design projects as they arise.

Are there complexities that arise? Yes. For example, it became clear that, as just one example, a design firm with several designers might purchase a disc of images and want to provide that "tool" to their whole group of designers. Can they do so? In the beginning, the answer was, "no": One buyer, one user, one person. But, people providing royalty-free images (like us) agreed that this absolute limitation was somewhat unfair and unreasonable. So it evolved that, yes, so long as the designers were all in the same firm, they could share the use of the images up to a point. And that "point" was 10 users, and no more. And that's how the 10 User Limit arose. Anything beyond that requires a seat license.

Scenarios:
You are a designer at the ABC company. You have purchased images from us online, and they are in your Download Dock on our site, available to you. You leave ABC Company and now work for the XYZ Company. Can you still use those images at the XYZ Company?

No. The ABC Company is the Purchaser of Record. If you want to use images in your position at the XYZ Company, the XYZ Company must also purchase the license to them.

You purchased discs from us. You are now going to pursue your lifelong dream of becoming a lumberjack and will not be needing images anymore. Can you give or sell your discs to someone who can use them?

No. The discs (or single images) cannot be resold or transferred.

You want to create templates that include our images and then sell those templates to others who can add their own logos. Allowed?

No. Not without first securing a template license.

The guiding principle:
Again, the underlying concept is simple: We want to provide YOU with effective "tools" (images) YOU can use as you complete the creative tasks associated with your professional life. But we do NOT want to put you into the business of selling images. (WE want to be in THAT business!) In any situation that might arise, any scenario where you're trying to determine if what you have in mind is "allowed" or "not allowed", simply ask yourself that question: Does what I have in mind result in people paying ME for the use of images (rather than for my own creative work) instead of having to purchase them directly from Comstock? If the answer is, "yes", it's probably not allowed...

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