Help center: Licensing
Help centre
Licensing
- Licensing photos, illustrations, videos and music clips
- Ownership of a licence
- Royalty-free (RF) licences
- Rights-managed (RM) and Rights-ready (RR) licences
- What happened to rights-managed creative images?
- How licensing relates to copyright protection, ownership and infringement
Licensing photos, illustrations, videos and music clips
When you download an image, video or music clip from Getty Images, you’re not buying the file itself — you’re buying a licence that lets you use the content in your projects.
Royalty-free licences
Most of our photos, illustrations, videos and music clips are available under our standard royalty-free licence, which is our most common licence. It lets you use them in a wide variety of projects, including advertising, websites, blogs, presentations, video productions, podcasts and more. Because these files are royalty-free, you only pay for the initial download of the file and don’t have to pay the creator a royalty each time you use it. Your licence lets you use the content as many times as you want, wherever you want, for as long as you want (within the terms of the content licence agreement).
Rights-managed/rights-ready licences
Rights-managed editorial images and rights-ready video clips are different from royalty-free images and video clips, because your licence is based on how, where and for how long you intend to use the content. Since the licence you’re paying for only covers a specific use, you can’t use these images or video clips in additional projects without purchasing additional licences. Getty Images no longer offers rights-managed licences for creative images.
Ownership of a licence
You can transfer ownership of the licence to a third-party individual or company (such as a client) by entering their name in the Licensee field in the Reference notes section at the checkout. Licences purchased with prepaid packs or subscriptions are not transferable.
For more information, check out our content licence agreement
Royalty-free (RF) licences
Most of our photos, illustrations, videos and music clips are available under our standard royalty-free licence, which lets you use them in a wide variety of projects, including advertising, websites, blogs, presentations, video productions, podcasts and more. Because these files are royalty-free, you only pay for the initial download of the file and don’t have to pay a royalty each time you use it. Your licence lets you use the content as many times as you want, wherever you want, for as long as you want (within the terms of the content licence agreement.)
For more information, check out our content licence agreement
Rights-managed (RM) and Rights-ready (RR) licences
Rights-managed editorial images and rights-ready video clips are different from royalty-free images and video clips, because your licence is based on how, where and for how long you intend to use the content. Since the licence you’re paying for only covers a specific use, you can’t use these images or video clips in additional projects without purchasing additional licences. Getty Images no longer offers rights-managed licences for creative images.
For more information, check out our content licence agreement
What happened to rights-managed creative images?
Any creative image with an active rights-managed licence will remain available under the terms of that licence until the licence term expires.
For more information, check out our creative licence simplification page.
How licensing relates to copyright protection, ownership and infringement
If you use a file in a project without licensing it, you are infringing on the copyright and can be held liable.
Learn more about how copyright applies to you