I took some time yesterday to start making images for my iPhone app. Junior was a bit under the weather, so I brought my gear upstairs in to the living room so he could sit on the couch and watch Elmo while I worked. Of course, as soon as I was set up, he was off the couch and inspecting the equipment and making a few adjustments. He was especially “helpful” when I ran downstairs to grab some extra batteries. I came back upstairs to find the apple I was going to photograph missing a few bites…

What was going to be a shoot of various objects turned in to a wonderful learning experience. It was interesting as I placed new objects on the table to photograph to see how many of these objects that Junior already had the word for, and how curious he was to learn the words for those objects that he did not know. Seeing his constant desire to understand and to make sense of the world around him always sparks the same in me.

I wish I knew what instilled in me my lifelong desire to learn so that I could pass it on to my son. If it’s genetic, I’m hoping that those genes made it through the random gene machine, although I think our odds are pretty good because my wife has some of those same traits. If it’s not genetic, I’m hoping that I can figure out what my family did for me so that I can do the same for him. Or maybe it will be enough for him to see my love of learning in order to pick up some of those habits, too.

Before he was born, I gave the standard answer when I was asked what I wanted for my child. “I want him to be healthy, happy, and to live a long life”, I would say. And while I will always wish for those things for him, my answer now includes a wish for him to always be curious about the world around him, and seek answers and understanding each and every day.

Wisdom is not a product of schooling but the lifelong attempt to acquire it. ~Albert Einstein

I’ve spent some time over the past week (finally) working on my iPhone application. One of the components of my application is the use of images. While I intend to use most of my own images inside the application, there are certain images that I need that I don’t have myself, so my thought was to use stock images to cover the gaps.

I have used stock images before, usually for non-commercial purposes, so I wanted to do some research on using stock images in software applications. Specifically, I wanted to know which license I needed, and if there was any protection if I use an image that someone later claims copyright to.

I am not a lawyer, and the information below isn’t intended to be legal advice. You should always consult a lawyer to decipher the legalese in these license agreements (legalese is strictly created to create enough vagueness to keep other lawyers employed) and to make sure you’re covered for what you intend to do. I also did not refer to specific companies when I mentioned different points of the license agreements because I did not want anyone to misconstrue my interpretation of these agreements as legal advice.  Talk to a lawyer. Got it?

What License Do I Need?

Most of the stock image sites offer a variety of licensing options for their images. Most of the standard licenses seem to cover using an image in a low volume way, such as on a website, in a presentation, or in an advertisement. Specifically to software, the standard licenses may cover situations where the image is used in a way where it is not a crucial component to the application, such as a background or screen saver. However, in my case the images are to be used on flash cards which is kind of the point of the application, so for the stock companies that I contacted, all of them said I needed their extended or enhanced licenses.

What If I Use an Image and Someone Sues Me For Copyright Infringement?

This is really the big deal with using someone else’s images. In an ideal world, my app would catch on and become very visible. Someone sees their image that someone stole and uploaded to a stock agency as their own, and they come after me for damaged. Yikes.

I found a great resource at StockPhotoRights.com, which is put together by Getty Images with the support of various organizations and stock photography companies. They provide a few guidelines and things to look for in the terms of usage and license information from the stock photography websites.

The big items here are the warranty and the indemnification.  Reading through the license information on various sites, all of them say something to the effect of “If you violate the license agreement or use the image in a way outside of what is authorized by the license you purchased you’re on your own.” This makes sense. But what if I use it according to the license and am within the bounds of the license agreement, but someone files a copyright claim against me?

There are a few sites that seem to address this directly. Interestingly, most of them also support the StockPhotoRights.com site. Their license agreements basically say that they warrant that my use of the image (as long as I stay within the bounds of the agreement) will not infringe on any copyrights, and that all the model and property releases are in place (although not trademark coverage). As long as I am using the image the way it was intended, these sites will cover me (with certain restrictions) if someone files a claim against me, as long as I let the stock site know in a reasonable time frame.  The next level are sites that say “at their own discretion”, they might step in for copyright infringement claims. Other sites simply repeat how they aren’t really liable for anything, and that they don’t really have a way to verify that their images were really uploaded by the copyright owner. Not coincidentally, some of these sites also happen to have lower prices than their competition.

Final Thoughts

For me, the decision is whether it’s worth taking the risk of a lawsuit down the road if I use a less expensive stock image site or whether spending the extra money for the piece of mind from a larger site is worth it. It will likely come down to the number of images I wind up needing, and the quality of the images I’m looking for.  For a generic image of some object, the risk of using the lower cost stock image might be insignificant, but for images with a lot of people, for example, the extra coverage may definitely prove to be worth it.

Again, I am not a lawyer and the best advice that I can give is to consult one, but I hope this provides some helpful insight.

Today, we went to the Rocky Mountain Air Show in Broomfield, Colorado. It was Junior and my first air show, and it did not disappoint. Junior was severely overwhelmed at the start of the day, with a lot of people and a lot of big helicopters and airplanes…two of his favorite things. He would say he wanted to get close to and sit in the aircraft, but when we got in to them, he would start to cry and say that he did not wan’t to be in them. But then, he is two. When the air show started, he was glued to the skies. We both were. There as an amazing aerobatic display, some beautiful, vintage aircraft, a skydiver, and a number of jets. Junior started the day with “big helicopter” and “big airplane” or “big avion“, but we ended the with “big jet” and some fancy jet engine sound effects.

If you haven’t been, I highly recommend it. We’ll be there next year, for sure!

Yesterday we took another trip to the Denver Zoo. I think we’ve officially paid for our membership with the number of visits we’ve taken, and having a membership makes only going for a few hours at a time economically viable, which is perfect when visiting with a two year old who only has blocks of hours during which to do activities.

This marks the first time I’ve picked up my camera (other than the iPhone) in a few weeks, as well. I really should do that more…in addition to the other 1000 things I’m trying to learn and do…

I stumbled upon this series of videos today titled move, eat, learn that made me want to break out my passport. Here is the description:

3 guys, 44 days, 11 countries, 18 flights, 38 thousand miles, an exploding volcano, 2 cameras and almost a terabyte of footage… all to turn 3 ambitious linear concepts based on movement, learning and food ….into 3 beautiful and hopefully compelling short films…..
= a trip of a lifetime.

Coincidentally, I was looking on old hard drives last…

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