iStockPhoto tightens Intellectual Property Standars

iStockPhoto has announced in a new article that in 2008 they'll be tightening standards regarding intellectual property standards.

Basically, some images involving protected content will be no longer accepted. As an example, images taken from NASA will no longer be accepted. For what I can read, property protection will be strongly enforced as well as imaging containing well known products. There's also a mention to "abusive inspiration" referring probably to copies of other submitters ideas.

The rules are not yet completely defined, so there are not many conclusions to take from this brief presentation. I'll get back on this as soon as there's more on the subject.

One thing is clear. The microstock world is getting more rules by the day and as image creators, we have to plan more carefully than ever, in order to cope with those rules.

It can be a good thing (I never understood why people could upload images from NASA?!) but there will also be a lot of gray areas, namely in images involving some kind of property (houses, boats, cars, etc).

Before this announcement, StockXpert was already applying new rules to image approval:

- Any photo from any kind of bulding, part of a building or an object now needs a property release.
- Any person on a photo (even if not recognizable) needs to have a signed model release for the photo to be accepted.
- Any illustration/vector submitted can have no text in it (even if outlined).

Some of these measures are being taken to ridiculous proportions, where you have to get a signed property release for an image containing part of a window or a door or you can't write the word "STOP" in a stop sign illustration.

We'll see what the future holds.