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Dominic1978

Your experience with stock photo portraits

**Posted:** Wed Feb 18, 2009 6:23 am

ndemeter

To my knowledge stock photo is just that. There is nothing that prevents you from using it for whatever you want given that there is a component of this game that's behind the scenes and explains that all characters are fictional and the images are used for entertainment purposes only.

Where did you see the disclaimers you mentioned?

**Posted:** Wed Feb 18, 2009 12:20 pm

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xnbomb

**Posted:** Wed Feb 18, 2009 4:07 pm

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natas

**Posted:** Wed Feb 18, 2009 4:12 pm

xnbomb

**Posted:** Wed Feb 18, 2009 4:18 pm

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vpisteve

I've used istockphoto pretty extensively for years without a problem. Except for maybe two teams not telling each other which photos they've used and discovering the same model being used for two different characters. Not that that ever really happened or anything....

**Posted:** Wed Feb 18, 2009 6:20 pm

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ndemeter

**Posted:** Wed Feb 18, 2009 6:22 pm

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Dominic1978

Indeed xnbomb, that was the specific text that worried me.

Currently I'm thinking about going low-budget-cgi (which means I'm going to download a bunch of portraits, cut out eyes, ears, mouths and mix and match my own character).

That way no reputation would be damaged when the character is wanted by the police/a spy/murdered/trying to destroy the planet.

I will experiment with this tomorrow.

Greets and thanks for your input,

Dominic

**Posted:** Wed Feb 18, 2009 6:42 pm

Agent Lex

**Posted:** Wed Feb 18, 2009 6:43 pm

RemixFiction · Account Disabled Joined: 08 Jan 2009 Posts: 39

As a photographer, I've worked with some of the folks over at Istockphoto - most of whom would be fine with you using their images in an ARG project.

The nice thing about IStock is that they also have an active community of photographers/artists who love to learn more about how their images are being used. In their forums there is a Request New Content sub-forum where you can post specific requests for images and open a dialog with the photographers. Once you establish a relationship with a few photographers you can have them explain to their models how the images will be used.

IStock will only raise it as an issue if the photographer or model registers a complaint with them. I think you're fine using stock images of models if you take a few more of these precautionary steps. Heck, you might even get a model to be more involved in the ARG so they can add it to their resume.

**Posted:** Sun Feb 22, 2009 11:25 am

Nighthawk

I use Shutterstock often. All of the pictures there require that they sign a release for the photo.

There are some photos that are flagged as "editorial use only", which means you theoretically can't use them anywhere. This includes images of famous people, for example.

I haven't gotten any complaints... yet... Laughing

**Posted:** Sun Feb 22, 2009 5:38 pm

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RemixFiction · Account Disabled Joined: 08 Jan 2009 Posts: 39

Istockphoto also requires model and property releases.

**Posted:** Sun Feb 22, 2009 10:20 pm

Geppetto · Boot Joined: 06 Mar 2009 Posts: 20

I'd never really considered the possibility of actively courting the stock photo community in the manner described above. I've always just taken the rather passive approach of taking whatever is presented, as is. And of course, the idea of a symbiotic relationship between stock photo models and the ARG community is pretty appealing...

**Posted:** Tue Jul 21, 2009 11:55 am