12-Is it likely

As you'll see as you read on in the section called "The Size of the Reservoir-- An Ocean or a Pond", as of right now there are vastly more "rights protected" photos available than royalty-free. Therefore, to a certain extent it's a numbers game: the odds. If everyone is drawing from a small pond of royalty-free images, it's far more likely they're going to select the same picture than if they are drawing from the ocean of available rights protected images.

And, if you and your competitor are in the same boat (meaning that your projects are so similar that you're likely to be looking for the same kind of fish), it's that much more likely you're going to gravitate to the same image. A good rule of thumb when using royalty-free is to imagine that, yes, someone does use the exact same picture, and assess how you would feel about it. While it's probably more likely that it won't happen than that it will-- you need to be sure you can live with it if it does.

But then…