Commercial Use Content
Commercial content can be used to commercialize, monetize, sell, promote, and advertise a product, business, or service. Use cases include billboards, websites, blogs, brochures, Facebook Ads, and television commercials.
Because commercial content is used for advertising and promotional purposes, content that is licensed for commercial use has many more restrictions than content that is licensed for editorial use.
Requirements for Commercial Content
Commercial content requires:
- Permission from every recognizable person in the clip or image in the form of a signed and valid model release that allows the photographer, filmmaker or illustrator to license the content commercially.
- Signed and valid property releases, if applicable, for recognizable private property, artwork, graffiti, and tattoos granting permission from the property owner to commercially license the content.
- No visible trademarks, company names, or logos present in the content.
- That the video or image is free of any intellectual property infringements.
- That the location, object, or event is not restricted.
Editorial Use Content
Editorial content can be used to illustrate newsworthy and current events. It can also be used to illustrate subjects of human interest, including the arts, business, culture, health and fitness, lifestyle, social events, technology, travel, and more. Editorial content can not be used for commercial purposes like to advertise or promote a product or service. News organizations, such as the BBC or The New York Times, will often use stock content in their news feeds to illustrate a story, event, or news development.
We distinguish between two types of editorial content, and guidance for these two types differ slightly:
- Editorial content that is newsworthy or of public interest. This kind of content must contain accurate metadata including an Editorial caption.
- Editorial caption is metadata in your title or description in this format:
- Day, month, and year the image/video was taken (if content was shot before the year 2000, only the year/decade is required)
- City, state/country of where the content was taken
- A factual sentence that describes the content’s subject matter
- Staged editorial content that conveys a story, idea, or concept that could be used to illustrate news, current events, or a subject of human interest. This kind of content does not require an editorial caption but should still be marked as Editorial during the submission process.
Further Requirements for Editorial Use Content
Unlike commercial content, editorial content, does not need to have model and property releases and can contain business names and logos. However, many locations and events have specific restrictions and could be rejected without the appropriate press credentials. Editorial content cannot be altered in post-production (cropping, exposure adjustments, and conversion to black and white are acceptable).