Licensing is hard to understand so let’s break this down for you!

When you buy a song on iTunes you don’t own the song, you buy the license to listen to the song.  So when we buy Justin Bieber’s song we don’t own it.  Ok yep that makes sense!  Let’s talk about it in our industry.  Similarly, we, photographers own the photos they take. So when a realtor hires a real estate photographer to take photos of a real estate listing, they are paying for is a temporary LICENSE for one specific person (realtor) to USE those photos for a specific purpose (advertise your listing).

Many real estate photographers, including us, expect to license the same photos they take for you to other parties. Often interior designers, architects and stagers want access to use the photos.  So don't give photos that are licensed to you away to anyone without first consulting with us who owns the copyright. It’s in our terms and conditions when realtors book with us that they aren’t able to share the photos with architects, interior designers, developers and stagers.

Some photographers may not discuss photo licensing with you. This may be either because they just haven't taken the time or they don't intend to relicense the photos. In any case, don't assume the lack of a discussion about photo ownership means that you, the agent, own listing photos taken by a professional real estate photographer. You don't. Always check with the photographer before giving listing photos taken for you by a professional photographer to anyone.