Photographers - Contributors

Contributors Agreement

PhotoAbility is dedicated to increasing the usage of imagery of people with disabilities in the tourism, leisure and lifestyle mediums by providing high quality stock photos.

All contributions should represent real life situations and be taken with quality photographic equipment and have good composition. PhotoAbility is not a modeling site and all images should showcase the activity or setting not just the subject. This site is dedicated to the authentic promotion of people with a disability and all models used must have a disability. No attempt should be made to hide the disability in the photo composition.

Note: To learn more about what makes a good image, read our Photo Composition Guide

This is a commercial site aimed at servicing the advertising and marketing industry.

The party who submits a photo or photographs to this site is, by doing so, entering into a agreement to sell photographs via download from our site.

Key Definitions of our contributors agreement:

1. Under this agreement PhotoAbility is authorized:

to add the Images you submit to us via our various upload tools to our database;
to license the Images to Customers on the basis of a Royalty Free License or Rights Managed License or refer quote requests to you for Restricted Rights Managed Images;
to set and to agree to prices;
to deduct its commission and fees as set out in the PhotoAbility Commission Table (below); and
to remit the balance in accordance with an effective method of transfer selected by PhotoAbility at any time.

2. Under this agreement (with restrictions as stated in the agreement) you have the right to:

Control country, usage, media type and industry in which Images are available for use by Customers under Rights Managed Restricted Images, but not for Royalty Free images or Rights Managed Images;
Control whether each Image you submit is displayed as Rights Managed, Rights Managed Restricted Use, or Royalty Free;
Request that any Images be deleted after an initial period of 12 months with one hundred and eighty (180) days notice. On image deletion, PhotoAbility will cease to grant Licenses for the Image so deleted (but without prejudice to any Licenses which may subsequently be granted for Comp Images already downloaded or under negotiation at the time of deletion);
Supply your Images on a non exclusive basis with the right to sell your Images in any other way you wish as long as the license terms are the same as offered by PhotoAbility for the same image, unless an exclusive agreement has been entered into.

3. Under this agreement you must:

Be the Copyright owner of the Images or have authority from the Copyright owner to upload the images to PhotoAbility;
Grant the Customer the right to alter Images providing such alteration is not pornographic, defamatory, demeaning or otherwise unlawful, or in the case of Editorial Images alters the context or meaning of the image, unless expressly stated at the time the image is uploaded to PhotoAbility and made a special condition of licensing;
Ensure that where you have indicated that a Model or Property release exists, you are able to make the release(s) available to PhotoAbility if so requested.

Level	Commission Rate
New Photographers Less than 20 Images in Portfolio and Less than 5 Sales	30%
Bronze 20 - 50 images in portfolio and 6 - 10 sales	35%
Silver 51 - 100 images in portfolio and 11 - 20 sales	40%
Gold Greater than 100 images in portfolio and More 21 Sales	45%

Licence Definitions

Royalty-free (RF) images are available for unlimited use, in accordance with the license agreement, for a one-time fee. Images may be used immediately after purchasing a license This is no renewal required under a RF license. Licenses for royalty-free images are non-exclusive.

Rights managed (RM) images are available for a specified amount of time for a fee that is determined by intended use. Usage restrictions may apply due to the nature of the subject matter, geography, or the original agreement between photographer or agency and subject. In order to qualify as a Rights Managed Image, the image cannot have been previously sold as a Royalty Free image either with PhotoAbility or any other library.

A note on copyright and releases.

If the photographer submits his/her own photo, all people who are recognizable in any photograph must have signed a model release.
If the subject of the photo submits photos, they must have a signed assignment of rights document from the photographer (even if a friend or family member) to allow unlimited commercial use of the photograph(s).
If photographs are submitted by a person other than the photographer or subject/model, then there must be both a model release AND an assignment of rights document signed by photographer to allow unlimited commercial use of the photograph(s).
Any photographs taken on a recognizable commercial property must also have a property release signed.

Please be aware that under copyright rules the copyright of all photographs resides with the photographer regardless of whether he was paid for the assignment or not unless there is an assignment of copyright agreement.

Sample releases for your own use: (You will be asked to certify that you have the applicable releases on registration)

Model Release (PDF Download)

Online Model Release

Property Release (PDF Download)

Photographer Assignment of Copyright (PDF Download)

Agreement Terms

The Images
1. “Images” means any digitized photograph, video clip, illustration or other Image that you submit to PhotoAbility
2. The Images must comply with all PhotoAbility’s technical, quality, content and any other criteria as set out on the PhotoAbility site at the time of your submission. PhotoAbility reserves the right to reject any Images which do not comply with any of these criteria but will make the best effort to explain the reason for any rejection. Where an image is rejected purely on image size we will notify you and ask if the image is available in a format that satisfies our minimum size (RF - 1024 x 768 pixels, RM - 3280 x 2460 pixels).
3. PhotoAbility reserves the right to crop or enhance the image if in our opinion it makes the image more saleable. If any image is altered you will be notified and will have the option to reject the alterations and withdraw the image.
Submission and deletion of images
1. PhotoAbility offers three license types, Royalty Free, Rights Managed and Rights Managed Restricted Use. You may elect the license types available on the web site to each image you submit under our photographer upload facility, if no election is made, or your images are submitted via the Easy Upload Form or YouSendit options, PhotoAbility will allocate a license type that will best maximize the potential earnings from the image and notify you of the decision. You accept that once a license type is chosen it cannot be changed unless changed by PhotoAbility. Rights Managed Images offer potential purchasers a sales history, therefore once an image has been sold as a Royalty Free image it cannot be changed to either of our Rights Managed options.
2. You cannot submit identical or similar images to PhotoAbility as both Royalty-Free and Rights Managed. The license type on PhotoAbility for an image must be the same as the license type for that image and similar images which you have on other agency web sites for non exclusive images.
3. We request that any image submitted to PhotoAbility remains in the library for a minimum of 12 months initially. You may request that your image is removed from the library with 180 days notice subject to the section entitled "Pricing and Promotion".
Effects of deletion
1. If an Image is deleted by photographer or contributor request, then any Licenses still in existence will remain and PhotoAbility will still be able to grant Licenses for:
  1. Images already downloaded by a Customer prior to deletion;
  2. Images for which PhotoAbility had properly entered into negotiations with any Customer prior to the date of deletion.
2. If an image is deleted, you agree not to enter into any license or sale which conflicts with any License granted by PhotoAbility.
Your Obligations :
1. To provide us with full and accurate information at Registration including your full legal name and address and you will keep that information up to date at all times.
2. That you are the legal copyright owner of all images provided by you to PhotoAbility via any means of transfer including direct email to the site owners.
3. You hold the rights to grant, market, license, sell or assign all rights in the Images, for use in print, motion picture, television, video, cable, computer, radio, cartoon, merchandising and/or Internet, to make the Images available on electronic equipment, CD-ROM, DVD and other similar media or via the Internet, and to include them in any catalogue, Internet sites or marketing in any form.
4. You hold all permissions needed for the people and places depicted in the images and that the images have been obtained without infringing on the privacy or private property laws of the Country/State/Province where the images have been taken
5. Where you have indicated that you have a Model release, Property release or any other release that you will make the release(s) available to PhotoAbility if so requested.
6. You grant to the Customer the right to alter the Images including any cropping, manipulation, combining and creation of derivative images, unless specifically restricted via license by you prior to sale, providing such alteration is not pornographic, defamatory, demeaning or otherwise unlawful.
7. None of the keywords supplied by you for any Image has been copied from the keywords for an Image of any other Contributor. PhotoAbility reserves the right to delete any group of keywords which in PhotoAbility’s opinion contain copies of another Contributor’s keywords.
8. Where PhotoAbility has Licensed an image to one of its Customers, you agree that you will not contact the Customer for any reason pertaining to this sale.
9. Where your Image(s) are included in search engine listings and promotional activities on behalf of PhotoAbility, no claim will be made by you, for breach of copyright in respect of the Images displayed.
Indemnities
1. You will indemnify, defend (at the request of PhotoAbility) and hold PhotoAbility harmless against any prejudice, damage, liability or costs (including reasonable lawyers’ fees) which arise from any claim that there has been a breach of your representations, obligations and warranties.
Pricing and Promotion
1. PhotoAbility can offer Custom Pricing to Customers by negotiation in relation to Rights Managed Images (with or without exclusivity) and Royalty Free Images i.e. pricing Contracts entered into with Customers where Images are licensed for set amounts, dependent upon usage or dependent upon volumes of Images purchased from the library. These License prices may vary from those of the PhotoAbility license calculator, or those set forth initially, and you agree that your Images can be licensed at these rates with no more than a 20% discount from your total original commission, in an effort to secure a sale, without PhotoAbility having to consult you.
2. You may set your own prices from Royalty Free Images. If no election is made we will set the prices based on our current published rates.
3. PhotoAbility offers its Customers the ability to price up all Images on its site by using a License calculator. You agree that PhotoAbility can sell Images at the prices from this calculator without further consultation with you. Restricted Image use may be priced by this method by quote only where PhotoAbility will contact you for use and price approval prior to sale. If we do not hear back from you within a 24 hour time frame, we are authorized by you to make this decision in your best interest in order to meet customers’ expectations for a quick turnaround and to procure the sale of the image.
4. Promotion - PhotoAbility shall have the right to offer Customers promotions on Images at a discount of no greater than 20% from time to time to promote the PhotoAbility service without further consultation with you. Promotions may include, but are not limited to:
  1. acquiring new Customers; or
  2. stimulating buying from existing Customers by offering discounts.
Advertising and Promotion
1. You agree that the Images may be used at PhotoAbility’s discretion without charge and without prior consent or approval from you' in Promotional/Marketing material designed to promote sales of Images and/or to enhance awareness of the PhotoAbility name/brand or that of the individual Contributor. You agree that any such promotional items may be distributed by PhotoAbility worldwide for up to two years. Promotional/Marketing material also includes search engine listings and promotion, including but not limited to, 'Google Images'.
2. Where Images are used to promote the PhotoAbility name/brand in general, PhotoAbility will make reasonable efforts to provide a photo credit to you where commercially reasonable, but you understand that PhotoAbility cannot guarantee a photo credit to you and will not be held liable if one is not made or is made in a different format from that usually provided by PhotoAbility.
Amendment and Variation
1. PhotoAbility may vary this Contract by altering or deleting any of its provisions or adding any new provisions by giving you 45 days prior notice at any time.
Entire Understanding
1. If any provision or provisions of this Contract shall be held to be invalid, illegal, unenforceable or in conflict with the law of any jurisdiction, the validity, legality and enforceability of the remaining provisions shall not in any way be affected or impaired.
Disputes and Governing Law
1. This Contract shall be governed by and interpreted in all respects in accordance with the laws of the Commonwealth of Australia. If any dispute shall arise between you and PhotoAbility in connection with or in relation to this Contract the matter shall be resolved by the Commonwealth of Australia.
Editorial Images
1. All Images submitted via any designated routes for News, Sport or Entertainment Images must adhere to PhotoAbility's published guidelines for Editorial Images.
2. An Image submitted as an Editorial Image must be free of any manipulation or alteration which alters the truth of the Image.
3. The decision as to whether an image is suitable for representation as an Editorial image is at PhotoAbility's sole discretion.