10-Competing Use

Since this is absolutely, positively the single most vital differentiation between "rights protected" stock and "royalty-free", let's discuss it simply but thoroughly.

The stories are now starting to roll off the presses: Like the two opposing political parties in Canada who used the exact same picture on each of their brochures. Since they had both bought a "royalty-free" picture, neither had any idea (or any control over) who had used it in the past or who would use it in the future.

We're waiting for an article titled, "How I used a royalty-free picture and got to look like an idiot."

Here's the bottom line: With a royalty-free picture you can have absolutely no idea whatsoever, or any control over, who else is going to use it or how they are going to use it. Period.

So, the instant you contemplate using a royalty-free picture in your project, there is one exceedingly crucial question you must ask yourself-- and in the next section we'll pose that question and talk about how to think about answering it...