"What's the word" - stock photography in games?

Discussion in 'Public Game Developers Forum' started by baris, Feb 1, 2013.

  1. baris

    baris Well-Known Member

    Jul 30, 2010
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    In my free time, I'd been toying around with a prototype for a (very vaguely) similar game to "What's the word" (https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/whats-word-new-quiz-pics-words/id573511269?mt=8), so it was interesting to see it become so popular.

    "What's the word" uses photos from stock photography websites. As far as I understand from their licenses (and asking some of them in emails when I was researching for my prototype), most of the stock photo sites don't allow 'essential' usage like this in games (and a very small minority allows such usage, but with quite expensive 'extended' licenses for more than a certain number of users - around 40$ / photograph).

    This difficulty of collecting hundreds of quality photos was a major reason I couldn't go ahead with making the prototype into a full game.

    But since "What's the word" can become so visible while using stock photographs, is there something I'm misunderstanding? Is there a relatively simple (and relatively cheap, at most 5-10$ / image) way to legally collect hundreds of photographs?
     
  2. mr.Ugly

    mr.Ugly Well-Known Member

    Dec 1, 2009
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    Berlin, Germany
    well.. its a russian company without an proper imprint on their website and just a web form to contact them.. no address, business tax ids etc. whatsoever

    i guess you can guess what i would assume.. ;)
     
  3. baris

    baris Well-Known Member

    Jul 30, 2010
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    Yes, I can guess :)
     
  4. ThreeCubes

    ThreeCubes Well-Known Member

    Oct 13, 2012
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    Actually they look quite official each image they use has a copyright mark and the name of the provider. and at the bottom on each screenshot they credit the websites used.

    They may have made a deal for a bulk order or joint advertising.
     
  5. baris

    baris Well-Known Member

    Jul 30, 2010
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    Well, at least one of the sites that they credit at the bottom had replied to me I needed the around 40$ extended license, and even then only for up to 10000 (ten thousand) downloads of the app.

    I suspect they probably just used the much cheaper regular license without looking into it much (unless the customer representative who replied to me was mistaken herself). The licenses of such sites are very confusing for this kind of usage, so I don't really blame them for it.

    Of course they could have made a special deal as you mention, but I doubt it, given that the sites they credit are already some of the best known ones.
     
  6. ThreeCubes

    ThreeCubes Well-Known Member

    Oct 13, 2012
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    well if "whats the word" people had of paid for $40 a picture then why are they putting down all the copyright stuff? WHen you buy the image you would not be required to credit the author. its either a deal they have done or are they just using the free images from there sites. Most of those image sites have number of free images you can use with restrictions usually relating to crediting back the image to them.
     
  7. Arty Tales

    Arty Tales Active Member

    Dec 22, 2011
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    Crestock.com allow the use of image in mobile apps as part of their standard license.
     
  8. baris

    baris Well-Known Member

    Jul 30, 2010
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    I checked out their conditions and this seems extremely useful, thank you.
     

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