Commercial vs Editorial

Agencies could do a lot more to put contributors’ minds at rest, as opposed to this cloud of uncertainty which prevails. Take, for example, Alamy, which provides an extra tick-box during the submission process for the contributor to state that a given image should only be sold as ‘editorial only’. And yet this is supplementary information which the contributor is not obliged to specify. It’s an issue which comes up on the Alamy forum, as contributors are rightly concerned at having declared the absence or presence of a release, yet still face the option of deciding to specify ‘editorial only’. Alamy, when asked about this, reply with typical woolly-worded agency non-commitment, leaving contributors no more enlightened and just as anxious.

Why do agencies do this to us? Their commission should reflect professional indemnity against possible claims, and they should not sit on the fence as to the possibility of a lawsuit against any contributor, where an image or video has been legally created and the release situation made quite clear.

P5 used to have a tick box for editorial, but removed it for some reason.

On clips I know that should be editorial, I now write in the "comments to curator" box that this clip should be tagged editorial.

Not sure if the curators even see this, but it puts my mind at ease a little.