Clarifying licensing with stock agencies

Quick Summary

Before you open a case, confirm the image was never licensed through a stock agency, since agencies can pass work to partner agencies and don't always report every sale. Email each agency you've worked with, give the image title or ID and the website using it, and ask whether that site holds a license. If the agency can't name clients, ask for the countries and dates of sales instead.

Before moving forward with any case, it's critical to ensure that the image has not been previously licensed through a stock agency. Even the most experienced and mindful photographers can forget about a sale from five years ago. Keep in mind that agencies may transfer your work to other agencies without telling you, and in many situations, we've discovered that major stock agencies do not fully report sales to photographers.

For this reason, it's important to contact any agency you've worked with in the past to determine if the photo has been sold to an alleged infringer. We've broken this process down into three simple steps to make your life easier -- just use the template and contact details for your agency below.

Step 1: Use this template

Good afternoon:

I am emailing on behalf of my licensing agent, Pixsy, to determine if your agency, and any affiliated agency, has issued a license for the photo “Photo title or stock agency ID” for the following website:https://www.infringerwebsite.com/

‍If your privacy policy precludes this disclosure, any other information you can provide, such as the countries in which my work has been licensed and dates of sales would be helpful. I want to ensure that my licensing agent’s legal counsel does not inadvertently contact one of your customers.

As you can imagine, having your work used without permission is very distressing and hurtful to my career as a photographer. I appreciate your help and look forward to our continued cooperation.