Q: Make sure you read the legalese on their site before you buy.
http://depositphotos.com/member-agreement.html
From the member agreement:
You're required "to agree to pay and indemnify, protect and also take the side of Depositphotos" and at the same time they do not stand up to their responsibility providing risk free material: all content comes "«AS IS», WITHOUT REPRESENTATION, WARRANTY, GUARANTEE OR CONDITION OF ANY KIND, EITHER EXPRESS, IMPLIED, STATUTORY OR OTHERWISE."... "USERS ALWAYS USE THE SITE, SITE CONTENT AND SERVICES AT THEIR OWN RISK"
While the numbers on the deal look good at first sight, I personally consider this unacceptable. They seem to put all of the risk onto the user.
If some idiot uploads third party material subject to copyright, I "license" the material from Depositphotos and then get sued over it, what will happen?
8c3de49939f54093ae116d2b6fa5cb2aWhoa! Thank you for pointing this out. REALLY appreciate it. I was just going to purchase this deal but those terms are pretty unacceptable. Thanks again
DepositphotosHi again,
You referred to the membership agreement. It applies to the website usage (as a service).
Content-wise it's completely different story:
Depositphotos warrants and guarantees that the File uploaded and used in full compliance with this Agreement does not infringe any copyrights, moral, and intellectual property rights, trademarks, or any third parties’ rights of privacy or publicity.
9553bdfc966b465498c30aed559b07a6[For some reason I cannot reply to Vadim's comment below.]
Thanks for clarifying that, Vadim. This would make a lot more sense. Would you mind pointing to the respective agreement you are paraphrasing?
d194a85124594211b66cfe930b2160f1Thanks for pointing this out, I was about to purchase but this seems like too much risk. Maybe the company should be more upfront about what you can and cannot do with these photos. I suggest using photos from Pixels.
a960a024cc5b4e8797e3711733960e1a@sumo-ling the provision Vadim is referencing is clause 10.1 of the License Agreement - http://depositphotos.com/license.html
@Nick Thanks for the pointer.
43a11271b42b465abd7b4f4718f6689aIf you have receipt of the images coming from Depositphoto, and someone comes back to sue you for infringement, proof of where you got the photo will cover your ass and the law suit will go to Depositphoto. Though, I will point out, many contributors have the same content on nearly all stock sites. There are sites like BIGSTOCK that has a different process where you can buy RESELLING rights to the photo/stock, meaning you pay $499 for an image and you have rights to resell it as stock art/photo. It is something they have worked out with the contributor, but not all stock art has that option. That is why the content on BIGSTOCK is vastly smaller and much more limited than Depositphoto or iStock, etc.
I have worked with Depositphoto for a while now and have talked to their support team in regards to these very types of concerns, and the process they have for contributors is impressive and full of so much legal red tape that you'd be hard pressed to find fraudulent rights to stock on their site.