Stock

[silver163]

I am planning on selling my photos on stockphotography site, I am curious is it legal to sell the same photo on multiple sites or no?

 

[Big Mike]

I'm guessing it depends on the manor in which you sell the rights to the photo. If you sell exclusive rights...then you can only sell it to once. If it's non-exclusive, then I guess you could sell it over and over. Probably best to ask the site.

 

[darich]

it also depends very much on the market that's interested in the image.
Selling the same image to 2 calendars could land you in bother, but selling to a calendar company and to a book publisher probably wouldn't.
The reason is because the 2 companies aren't in direct competition with each other, whereas 2 calendar companies are.

Selling through a micro site (where you get a few pence/cents per image) is like giving your image away. It's also not allowed if you have similar images on a "real" stock site where you can negotiate the price and rights usage.
The reason being that if you're selling images similar to each other to the same/similar companies through 2 different agencies, then it makes the "real" agency look bad for charging much more, it makes you look bad for trying to sell the same image twice, and it makes photographers in general look bad for trying to sell the same image twice.
In an extreme case you could find yourself subject to a lawsuit for embarrassing the buyers or even for their costs if they've printed books/calendars then discovered the image is not theirs exclusively.

There is no problem having the same image on multiple agencies but if you sell it through one then you must remember the rights you sold it with and probably let the other agencies know so they can notify potential buyers if they ask about that image.