Commons:Deleting images based on stock photo sites

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 This page is an essay; it contains the advice and/or opinions of one or more Commons contributors.
It is not a Commons policy or guideline, and editors are not obliged to follow it. Please update the page as needed, or discuss it on the talk page.
This page in a nutshell: Please be careful when using stock photo sites as a rationale for deleting an image. These sites have many, unmarked, public domain images on them under the same "pay to use" type scheme.

Stock photo sites such as Getty Images and Alamy host many public domain images on their site. These images are not marked as public domain and stock photo sites will continue to sell the "rights" to these images regardless of the fact that they are free and open to all.

US courts have dismissed claims by photographers of these images on the grounds that by putting them under a public domain type license they are relinquishing all rights to them. Stock photo sites are perfectly within the law to turn around and sell these images for a profit much in the same way book publishers sell old copies of Charles Dickens novels that have long ago fell out of copyright.

What do I do with my images?[edit]

This type of profit scheme appears to only be done on public domain type images. If you don't want this happening to your images you might want to reconsider using a {{CC0}} or other type of public domain type license. By putting the image under something that requires attribution, or a similar license (share-alike), stock photo sites would be forced to attribute the image to you at the very least. Again, it appears that they are doing this with public domain type licenses only.

How do I know the difference when doing copyright patrol?[edit]

Please be aware that listing stock photo sites as a source for potential copyright violations may not be good enough. While there are plenty of actual copyrighted images on sites such as Getty and Alamy the reuse of public domain images makes it possible that the image is actually fine to keep here on Commons. There does not seem to be any indication on the stock photo site itself that would show that the image was taken from somewhere else. It is prudent to run a reverse Google image search and try to find additional uses of the image elsewhere if there is any doubt. Please also consult the list below to see if the stock photo uploader is known to use these sites for public domain images.

List of known uploaders[edit]

The following is a list of known uploaders who use these sites to upload public domain images. Please investigate further if the stock photo link indicates that the photo was uploaded by someone on this list.

  1. Paul Fearn (Alamy)
  2. Archive PL (Alamy)
  3. The History Collection (Alamy)

Discussions[edit]

Multiple different VP/C discussions on this topic have taken place over the years. Including:

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