Unfortunately, the naturalized term “royalty-free” is misleading. Royalty-free does not mean “without a license”, but refers to a specific licensing procedure.

With a royalty-free image – also called RF or royalty free – you receive a blanket right of use through the purchase. This means that you can use an image several times and for different projects without having to buy a new license for each use. The exact usage rights are defined by the provider’s EULA (end user license agreement). Important for this type of image licenses is the limitation to a certain number of users who are allowed to access the images. Royalty-free images are comparable to software licenses. As with a software license, there are restrictions on the number of workstations on which an image may be available.

Most providers today grant a right of use for 10 users of the same company at the same headquarters. Feeding the image into a company database or making it available via a network is usually prohibited. For extended needs, multi-user licenses can be solved.

For royalty-free images, the model releases and property releases are usually regulated. For commercial use this is of great importance. Check with each provider whether the release for advertising purposes, i.e. model releases for depicted persons or property releases for depicted brands, buildings etc. is available.