In the process of developing Walking Rain Gallery I looked at most of the stock photo websites and forced myself to read through their terms of service and allowable uses. It was NOT fun and after hours of reading I remain as confused as I had been.
They advertise products in ways that make them seem free or inexpensive. However, when you start to explore exactly what that means things get very confusing. Can you take one of their pictures and use it to produce a line of greeting cards? What exactly is commercial use?
I came away feeling that if I used one of their images for a profit making venture I would always have to plan to pay.
In a world of inexpensive digital cameras and essentially unlimited cloud storage I don't think digital pictures have the same uniqueness images did at one time. Certainly, there are photographic artists who take pictures worthy to be called art, and they deserve compensation for their work. However, that seems like a very tiny universe of pictures.
I think there should be a way for a photographer to profit from their work without imposing so many restrictions on buyers. I will see if I can make that work on Walking Rain Gallery.
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