stock photo/design usage laws?

I would like to use stock images to make poster to sell. I would like to know the guidelines to this. I do not plan on using them as is, i will do photo shop effects to them such as vectoring them or halftones. I see people doing this all the time like on t shirts using photos of celebrities and adding effects and other art work to it.

You need to read the licensing agreements on the Stock Photo sites.

Legally you cannot use a photo you find on the web with out the photographer’s permission.

Stock photography websites contain thousands of existing photographs that can be licensed for specific uses. A customer who uses stock photography instead of hiring a photographer can save time, effort and money. Typically publishers can either purchase exclusive rights to a single image or they can purchase a subscription of sorts. The subscriptions allow publishers to download a limited number of photos over a specified period of time.

Stock photo websites allow webmasters, marketers and publishers to locate pictures for their marketing and promotional materials without the hassle of organizing a photo shoot. With copyright laws businesses must be very careful in using unlicensed photos.

There are also risks to using “free” photographs. Many of the free websites contain collaborative works from multiple photographers and artists. While the websites attempt to monitor the images in their collections in violation of copyright laws, there are no guarantees. If you opt to use photographs or images from a free portal, it is important to keep this in mind.

Here is where you can find some inexpensive stock photo directories:

http://www.small-business-software.net/stock-photography.htm

Goodluck

spreadshirt’s design service in a box

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