Website licensing misery

I'm really not clever enough to use my own photographs to illustrate my own website. Therefore, I turn to stock photography libraries which used to supply royalty free licenses which meant that businesses like mine, which refresh their website once every blue moon, don't have to worry about paying royalties just a one-off fee to the photographer for the right to put the photo on the website and leave it there for some unspecified period. However, when I visited Alamy, I was offered a five year licence for website use. Is this an impracticable new trend or have I just been out of the stock photography market for too long?

For the purposes of this blog, I usually go to Google image search and look for Images that are labelled for reuse. Some might argue this website is commercial (even though it is not written for any direct economic benefit, but is that the test) so I tend to look for unrestricted reuse so I'm afraid I can't show you the Tate's image of St Joseph at work (I'm writing this on his feast day) even though the original artwork is out of copyright. However, thanks to the generosity of a photographer in the Philippines and Wikimedia Commons you can enjoy this image of a church sign in the Philippines.

The photographer donated this to the public domain and I am grateful for his generosity. However I must remember not to speak to the German market. According to a recent newsletter I received from the German IP firm Meissner Bolte a reform of German copyright contract law became effective on 1 March 2017. This amends the German copyright act and appears to prevent my desired single payment for the use of a copyright work. I am not clear whether this simply prevents exclusive licences, which might be okay because I'm not looking for an exclusive licence. Section 40 a of the German copyright act now provides that a copyright owner can after 10 years exploit and otherwise dispose of work himself regardless of previous contracts.  I shall be seeking further clarification when I meet my German colleagues at #INTA17 in Barcelona.

Copyright law is seriously ripe for reform as voices more authoritative than mine (Sir Richard Arnold) have been saying for some time. You can listen to an excellent BBC Radio 4 programme on the topic here.  Unfortunately it's an enormous topic and the level of protection required for a website ready photograph, a doodle and a truly original painting by Sir John Everett Millais really isn't justifiably the same.

I think my website might be words only.  That's going to be really boring.