As some people here also buy images, you may have information about this.

When someone buys an image, what does he get in terms of documentation?  I suppose some type of invoice.  What kind of information does it contain?  Does it show a thumbnail of the image purchased?

I was wondering about this the other day, as this, like most businesses, are not ethernal.  Many of the sites we contribute now will not exist in a few years.

So, how are sellers and buyers protected?  Of course, I'm more concerned about sellers' rights... 

For instance, suppose that years from now you find one of your images in use in a way it would have required an EL, but you know you never sold an EL of it.  You contact the user, he says he's purchased it from a site that doesn't exist anymore.  If he doesn't have a sort of invoice showing the image and the license terms of the purchase, I believe you will be able to sue him.  Now, if he has a simple invoice for an EL image just showing something like "Image ID#123456", and as we can not contact the site anymore, he can use that on his defense.

If we could get a detailed downloads report from every site - something like each sale showing image thumbnail, license type and size, invoice number, maybe on a monthly basis - then we would at least have our own sales' reference for future use.

Maybe it's too much trouble for the little risk of misuse, but even with the sites "alive" we've seen many stories of image abuse.

Regards,
Adelaide

Karimala,

Thanks for you reply, I'm glad to know that IS and DT show thumbnails in the reports, but as I understand this does not generate a "document" that is emailed or downloaded, like an invoice as I said.  So unless the buyer prints it, he will have no proof of purchase in case the site disappears.

I believe most sites would be able to generate a decent report to both buyers and sellers, it doesn't seem that difficult, does it?  It would look much more professional.  I'll try to suggest it in a couple of sites and see how it goes.  In FT I know their IT people will mess up everything, so maybe it's better not ask. 

Regards,
Adelaide