Usage Rights Guide
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Summary
All of our images are copyrighted (intellectual property of Shoot2Sell), and we license our images to you for use, based on the package you purchase. We are committed to protecting the interests, intellectual property rights, and livelihood of our company and photographers.
MLS package: The real estate agent or client is granted Temporary Usage Rights to use those images until the property is either sold, rented, or otherwise goes off the market. If you need to re-use images for more than a single one-time listing, you will need to purchase permanent usage rights.
Once it has been sold, you must purchase permanent usage rights to continue using for your marketing purposes.
Portfolio package: The client is granted Permanent Usage Rights to use those images forever, for all marketing purposes.
The images you purchase are non-transferable and cannot be given away, bartered or sold. The client who pays for the images is the only one who has the rights to use the images. For example, a realtor pays for images but cannot give those images to the builder, designer, remodeler, stager, etc. of that property photographed.
Shoot2Sell must be credited for the images purchased.
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What are “temporary” usage rights?
These are the most common usage rights, for MLS listings.
- You (the realtor/agent who purchased the images) can use the images until your property has been sold or goes off the market. You must still credit Shoot2Sell for the images on your blog or “Just Sold” marketing materials.
- After you sell the property, if you want to continue using the images for your marketing purposes, you can call the Front Office to pay for permanent usage rights. The amount you have already paid for each photo will be credited towards you purchase, and you can purchase usage rights for as many photos as you would like.
Do not distribute your images to someone who has not obtained permission from or made a separate payment to Shoot2Sell.
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What are “permanent” usage rights?
This falls under the category of our Portfolio package pricing.
What it means:
- You (who purchased the images) can the images however you want, in perpetuity.
- Wanna put it on your website? In a magazine ad? On a billboard? On your blog? On a coffee mug for promotional products? You’re all set and good-to-go with permanent usage rights.
- Permanent usage rights are just that — the ability to use the images however you want. The images still hold our copyright ownership and rights; You cannot sell, transfer, or give away the images to anyone else.
Each client who pays for permanent usage rights is given permission to use the photos for their marketing only.
What if you use copyrighted images without permission?
We have a rights management system to find Shoot2Sell images on the internet, and determine if those images were obtained legitimately. If they were not paid for, we will ask the image user to do 1 of 3 things (depending on the usage purposes of the images):
- Ask the user to remove the images from the site / source within the next 24-hours.
- Ask the user to correctly reference/credit Shoot2Sell as the photographer for each image.
- Ask the user to pay for permanent usage rights to continue using the images, that way they can use them forever, for all marketing purposes.
Copyright infringement is a serious issue for our photographers and our business. Any parties who use our images without permission or legitimate payment will be issued a Cease and Desist.
If there are any parties using our images without permission or legitimate payment on NTREIS / MLS, we will contact NTREIS and they will immediately remove them from MLS, or such parties will be issued a Cease and Desist.
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Learn more about Copyright Laws:
For US copyright law, please visit the United States Copyright Office website.
Realtor (NAR) Magazine article on Intellectual Property.