Visual Content Clearance Checklist: Rights, Releases, Metadata, and Usage Limits

By Casey Scott McKay · 2024-02-29

Fifteen phases that take visual content from the commissioning engagement to the demand letter, with a campaign clearance workflow built around five gates that non-lawyers can actually run. The early phases fix the ownership default that surprises every marketing department and extract the eight stock license terms that campaigns exceed silently. Release phases cover what a model and property release must contain and how to allocate responsibility for obtaining them, which is the most consequential term in a shoot agreement. A metadata phase closes the Section 1202 exposure that a content pipeline creates by accident. Later phases cover user-generated content, generated imagery, video and its separate music and performer clearances, the image inventory that is the real deliverable, and a five-step response to the demand letters that arrive constantly. One invented matter, Alderbrook Foods, runs through four different sources.

IP and Technology > Copyright | Checklist | Published 29 February 2024 - Updated 27 March 2025 | Casey Scott McKay - marksy.us

Summary. Fifteen phases that take visual content from the commissioning engagement to the demand letter, with a campaign clearance workflow built around five gates that non-lawyers can actually run. The early phases fix the ownership default that surprises every marketing department and extract the eight stock license terms that campaigns exceed silently. Release phases cover what a model and property release must contain and how to allocate responsibility for obtaining them, which is the most consequential term in a shoot agreement. A metadata phase closes the Section 1202 exposure that a content pipeline creates by accident. Later phases cover user-generated content, generated imagery, video and its separate music and performer clearances, the image inventory that is the real deliverable, and a five-step response to the demand letters that arrive constantly. One invented matter, Alderbrook Foods, runs through four different sources.

Keywords: image clearance checklist · commissioning assignment clause · stock license terms extraction · impression and print run caps · extended license triggers · editorial only · model release contents · property release · works of art in frame · third-party marks in frame · metadata preservation · section 1202 · embedding server test · ugc rights request · generated imagery terms · image inventory fields · expiry calendar · demand letter response · campaign clearance gates · video and music clearance

What this checklist is for

This is the working document for clearing images and video. It does not re-teach the law. If you cannot say in one sentence why the photographer owns a photograph the client paid $22,000 for, read The Image Business first. The reasoning behind each box, with model language, is in Licensing and Clearing Visual Content. This document tells you what to do, in order.

Who should use it. In-house counsel supporting a marketing function; agency counsel; brand and marketing operations leads who run the gates; photographers and their representatives on the other side of the same terms; and anyone who has just received an image demand letter.

What you'll need before you start. The campaign brief; every license, engagement letter, and purchase order for the assets; the agency's licensing records; the release files; access to the content pipeline's image processing configuration; and a list of every property where the images appear.

The worked matter. Alderbrook Foods launches a product line from four sources: a royalty-free stock photograph of a family at a dinner table; a commissioned product shoot by a freelancer paid $22,000; a photograph from a food blogger's site that the agency's designer found; and an embedded influencer social post on the product page. There is no image inventory.

| Phase | What you accomplish | Typical elapsed time | |---|---|---| | 1 | Fix the commissioning engagement | 1 week | | 2 | Extract the eight stock license terms | 1-2 weeks | | 3 | Run the five campaign clearance gates | per campaign | | 4 | Get the model releases | 1-2 weeks | | 5 | Get the property releases and clear the frame | 1 week | | 6 | Fix the metadata pipeline | 1 week | | 7 | Handle embedding and third-party display | 3 days | | 8 | Build a UGC program that acquires rights | 3-5 weeks | | 9 | Handle generated imagery | 1-2 weeks | | 10 | Handle video, music, and performers | 2-3 weeks | | 11 | Map the intake sources | 1-2 weeks | | 12 | Build the image inventory | 4-10 weeks | | 13 | Respond to a demand letter | 1-3 weeks | | 14 | Run the photographer's checklist | ongoing | | 15 | Budget and review | annually |

Phase 1 — Fix the commissioning engagement

[ ] Know the default: copyright vests in the author, 17 U.S.C. § 201(a); a commissioned photograph is a work made for hire only if the photographer was an employee under Community for Creative Non-Violence v. Reid, 490 U.S. 730, 751-53 (1989), or the work is within one of nine enumerated categories and there is a signed writing. 17 U.S.C. § 101. A product shoot generally is not.
[ ] Include an assignment, signed before the shoot, in writing. 17 U.S.C. § 204(a).
- Model. Photographer hereby irrevocably assigns to Client all right, title, and interest, including all copyrights, in and to the Images... To the extent any Image constitutes a work made for hire under 17 U.S.C. § 101, it shall be deemed such; to the extent it does not, the foregoing assignment applies.
[ ] Or, where assignment is refused, take a perpetual, irrevocable, worldwide, fully paid, sublicensable license for any purpose including advertising, packaging, and merchandise — and know that you took a license.
[ ] Allocate release responsibility explicitly to whoever controlled the subject and the location.
[ ] Limit the photographer's warranty to originality and its own rights; do not ask it to warrant that a brand visible in the frame carries no third-party claim.
[ ] Cap the indemnity proportionately to the fee.
[ ] Address credit, delivery format and resolution, raw files, whether originals with metadata intact are delivered, and the photographer's archive obligation.
- Trap. "All images delivered to Client" is a delivery term, not a transfer. It appears in a large share of engagement letters and it transfers nothing.

Alderbrook, Phase 1. The engagement letter has exactly that clause. The photographer owns the copyright, and Alderbrook has an implied license construed around the launch campaign — probably not packaging in perpetuity, probably not licensing to retailers. Negotiate the assignment now, while the relationship is functional.

Phase 2 — Extract the eight stock license terms

[ ] Translate the categories first. Royalty-free = one fee, subject to restrictions. Rights-managed = scoped and priced to a defined use. Editorial use only = news, commentary, or education, and never to sell, promote, or endorse.
[ ] Extract and record, per image:
1. Print run and impression caps.
2. Territory.
3. Duration, and the treatment of material already printed when the term ends.
4. Sublicensing — to distributors, retailers, franchisees, or the agency. Most standard licenses say no.
5. Modification — cropping, compositing, colorizing, use as an element in a derivative work.
6. Sensitive-use restrictions — adult content, tobacco, firearms, political endorsement, and depictions unflattering to a depicted person.
7. Extended license triggers — packaging, point-of-sale, merchandise, templates, resale.
8. Indemnity and its cap.
[ ] Produce a one-page summary per campaign from these fields.
- Why. Marketing will not read the license. It will read one page.
[ ] Understand the trap and put it in writing to the client: exceeding the license voids the indemnity at the exact moment it is needed, because the third-party claim the indemnity was for is the claim that arrives.
[ ] Never use an editorial-only image in advertising.
- Why. The restriction exists because the releases do not, and the resulting exposure runs to third parties the licensor cannot indemnify you against.

Alderbrook, Phase 2. The royalty-free license caps at 500,000 impressions and requires an extended license for packaging and point-of-sale. Alderbrook printed 1.2 million cartons. The use is unlicensed, therefore infringing, and the indemnity does not apply. Fix: buy the extended license, retroactively if the provider will sell one.

Phase 3 — Run the five campaign clearance gates

[ ] Gate one, at concept. The brief records: media; territories; duration; estimated impressions and print runs; whether packaging, point-of-sale, or merchandise are contemplated; and whether assets will be shared with retailers, distributors, or franchisees.
- Why here. Every one of those maps to a license term, and all are knowable at concept and unknowable at launch.
[ ] Gate two, at selection. Per candidate image: source, license type, the eight Phase 2 terms, and flags for editorial-only, extended-license triggers, and the presence of people or private property.
[ ] Gate three, at production. Releases collected and filed; metadata preservation confirmed; works of art and third-party marks in the frame identified and cleared; UGC assets carrying a recorded rights request.
[ ] Gate four, at launch. Inventory rows created; expiry dates calendared; renewal owner named.
[ ] Gate five, at expansion. Any change in media, territory, duration, or volume returns to gate one.
- Trap. This is the gate always skipped, because expansion feels like continuation rather than a new use. It is where the scope breaches happen.
[ ] Name a person for each gate, not a function — usually marketing operations, with counsel on gates two and five.
- Why. Legal review at every gate will be routed around; legal review at the two that matter will not.

Phase 4 — Get the model releases

[ ] Obtain a release from every identifiable person in any image used commercially.
- Why. This is a publicity rights problem, not a copyright problem, and one the image licensor cannot indemnify you against because it never held those rights. See Your Face Is Not Public Domain.
[ ] Confirm the release contains: identification of the person; a broad description of permitted uses and specific mention of the uses actually contemplated; signature by the person or a guardian for a minor; duration and territory; consent to modification and to use in composites; assignability to successors; and, where relevant, name and voice as well as likeness.
[ ] File releases so they can be located by image, not by shoot date.
- Trap. A one-line release signed on a shoot day is worth having and is frequently insufficient for the use eventually made.
[ ] See Clearing and Licensing Name, Image, and Likeness; Name, Image, and Likeness Clearance Checklist.

Phase 5 — Get the property releases and clear the frame

[ ] Obtain a property release for recognizable private property: distinctive retail interiors, branded vehicles, artworks on walls, animals with commercial value.
- Note. There is no general privacy right in a building, and 17 U.S.C. § 120(a) permits pictorial representations of a building ordinarily visible from a public place. Agencies require releases anyway, and private property may carry trade dress, trademark, or contractual restrictions.
[ ] Clear works of art in the frame. A painting, sculpture, or mural is a separate pictorial work, and the architectural exception covers the building, not a painting on it. The analysis is license, fair use, or de minimis use. See The Artist's Other Rights; VARA and Attribution Checklist.
[ ] Check venue restrictions. Museums, galleries, and many private venues impose contractual photography restrictions independent of copyright, and a shoot in a licensed venue is governed by the venue agreement whatever the copyright answer.
[ ] Assess third-party marks in the frame. Generally fine in editorial use; in advertising, run a nominative-fair-use and likelihood-of-confusion analysis. See Descriptive and Nominative Fair Use; Trademark Fair Use Audit Checklist.
[ ] Treat location scouting as a clearance activity, prospectively. It is far cheaper than answering the question in post.

Phase 6 — Fix the metadata pipeline

[ ] Audit whether the content management system, image optimization pipeline, or publishing workflow strips embedded IPTC and EXIF fields.
[ ] Configure the pipeline to preserve embedded copyright management information, or to re-embed it after processing.
- Why. 17 U.S.C. § 1202 prohibits, with the requisite knowledge and intent, removing or altering CMI or distributing works knowing CMI was removed, and 17 U.S.C. § 1203 provides statutory damages of $2,500 to $25,000 per violation on top of any copyright remedy.
- Note the contested element. The double scienter — knowing removal plus knowing or having reasonable grounds to know it will induce, enable, facilitate, or conceal infringement — has divided courts, and defendants have prevailed by showing an automated process unconnected to concealment. Do not rely on that; fix the setting.
[ ] Audit attribution the company adds, because a false or inaccurate credit line is the other half of § 1202.
[ ] Keep an archive of originals with metadata intact.

Phase 7 — Handle embedding and third-party display

[ ] Identify every place the site embeds third-party images rather than hosting copies.
[ ] Know that the server test — Perfect 10, Inc. v. Amazon.com, Inc., 508 F.3d 1146, 1159-62 (9th Cir. 2007) — holds there is no display under 17 U.S.C. § 106(5) where the party does not store the image, and that other courts have declined to follow it.
[ ] Do not build a commercial page on the server test. Where the image is central rather than incidental, license it.
[ ] Remember that a platform's terms grant the platform a license and grant the embedder nothing.

Alderbrook, Phase 7. The embedded influencer post is central to a commercial product page. License the image directly from the influencer with a warranty of rights, and obtain a release from anyone identifiable.

Phase 8 — Build a UGC program that acquires rights

[ ] Recognize the three layers a repost does not clear: the photograph's copyright, which belongs to whoever took it and often not the poster; the depicted people's publicity rights; and any third-party content in the frame.
[ ] Send a rights request with terms stated plainly and an affirmative response required.
- Note. "Reply YES to let us use this" is a contract only if the terms are actually readable somewhere.
[ ] Cover in the terms: the specific content; media and duration; modification and cropping; sublicensing to retailers; and a warranty that the poster owns the content and has permission from anyone depicted.
[ ] Obtain a release from identifiable people, or take the poster's warranty as a screening tool rather than as protection.
[ ] Keep a record per asset of the request, the response, and the date.
[ ] Use official rules as the vehicle where volume justifies it, with the rights grant in the rules and entry conditioned on acceptance.
[ ] Do not run UGC in paid advertising on the strength of a repost permission.
- Why. Organic social use and a paid placement are different uses, and the second is the one that generates claims. See Building an Influencer and Endorsement Compliance Program.

Phase 9 — Handle generated imagery

[ ] Ask what the company owns. Material lacking human authorship is not copyrightable, and registration has been refused for material generated without sufficient human authorship. See Who Owns What the Machine Made?.
[ ] Read the terms of the specific tier the company pays for — assignment of outputs, commercial use, restricted categories, and indemnity vary sharply between free and enterprise tiers.
[ ] Run a reverse image search on generated assets before they ship. A generated image reproducing protected expression infringes regardless of how it was produced, and one resembling a real person raises publicity-rights and digital-replica issues.
[ ] Decide the disclosure posture deliberately. 15 U.S.C. § 45 reaches an image conveying a false impression, and a generated depiction of a result the product does not deliver is a deceptive claim whatever the medium.
[ ] See Deploying Generative AI Without Losing Your IP; Generative AI IP Compliance Checklist.

Phase 10 — Handle video, music, and performers

[ ] Clear the audio separately. Two copyrights — composition and sound recording — with distinct owners. A stock video license covers neither unless it says so, and a platform's built-in library track typically permits use only on that platform. See Two Copyrights, One Song; Clearing a Track; Music Clearance Checklist.
[ ] Release on-camera talent for likeness and performance, and where union talent is involved apply the governing agreement's usage, term, and residual rules.
[ ] Treat voice as a separate consent, and address synthetic replication expressly.
[ ] Watch duration and territory harder than for stills. A six-month North American digital grant is common and the asset outlives it on every platform it was posted to.
[ ] Run every still-image clearance question frame by frame: works of art on location walls, marks on products in shot, posters in the background, passers-by who signed nothing.

Phase 11 — Map the intake sources

[ ] Stock subscriptions. Easiest to manage; fails on scope and on lapse. Check the post-termination clause of every subscription.
[ ] Commissioned shoots. Fails on ownership (Phase 1) and releases (Phase 4).
[ ] Agency-supplied assets. The agency may have licensed in its own name, and the license may not transfer. Require licensing in the client's name, or assignment, plus delivery of licensing records at the end of the engagement.
[ ] Retailer, supplier, and manufacturer assets. Arrive with no documentation, and the supplier frequently does not own them either. Put the warranty and the chain in the supply agreement.
[ ] User-generated content. Phase 8.
[ ] Internal and employee-created images. Generally owned by the company under 17 U.S.C. § 101, but a photograph of employees and customers at a company event still needs releases for commercial use, and nobody collects them.
[ ] Images of unknown provenance. Every inventory has them. Replace rather than research. Replacement costs a stock license; research costs more and ends in uncertainty.

Phase 12 — Build the image inventory

[ ] Record per image: identifier and thumbnail; source; the license or assignment document with a link to the file; rights granted by media, territory, duration, and volume; editorial-only flag; extended-license requirement; sublicensing permitted; modification permitted; model releases held per identifiable person; property releases held; third-party marks in the frame; current uses; expiry date and renewal owner; and metadata preserved.
[ ] Start with images currently in use on owned properties and active campaigns. Ignore the archive.
- Why. Images in use today are the exposure. Starting there makes the project finishable, and a finishable project gets done.
[ ] Populate from the agency's licensing records, which is where most documents are.
[ ] Attach the rule: no new image is published without an inventory row.
[ ] Put the expiry calendar in the calendar the company already runs.
- Trap. Material printed under an expired license and still circulating is an ongoing use.
[ ] Review annually and on every campaign launch, market entry, packaging change, and acquisition. See IP Due Diligence Toolkit.

Phase 13 — Respond to a demand letter

[ ] Do not pay reflexively and do not ignore it.
[ ] Verify the claimant. Is there a registration, and what is its date relative to the use? 17 U.S.C. § 412 determines whether statutory damages and fees are available at all. Confirm ownership; for an agency, confirm it holds the rights asserted.
[ ] Find your own license. A surprising share of these concern images the recipient did license — through an agency, a prior campaign, a lapsed subscription, or a provider later acquired. The Phase 12 inventory answers this in a minute.
[ ] Assess the actual exposure. The realistic measure is the license fee that would have been paid, times period and scope, unless timely registration puts 17 U.S.C. § 504(c) statutory damages in play — $750 to $30,000 per work, up to $150,000 for willfulness — with fees under § 505.
[ ] Act. Take it down if the claim is good, preserve the record of when and where it was used, respond with the facts, and settle at a number tied to license value. Where the claim is not good, say so specifically.
[ ] Consider the forum. See Small Claims for Copyright; Bringing, Defending, or Opting Out of a Copyright Claims Board Proceeding.
[ ] Close the loop internally. The image came from somewhere, and that somewhere is still supplying images.

Phase 12A — Diligence: inheriting someone else's image library

An acquired company's image library arrives with its licenses, its gaps, and its liabilities, and the buyer takes all three. Run this pass from either side.

What the buyer should request.

[ ] The image inventory, if one exists. Its absence is itself the finding, and it should be priced.
[ ] Every stock subscription and license, with the post-termination clause for each — because a subscription that ends on closing may leave the buyer using images under terms that did not survive.
[ ] Every photography engagement letter and assignment, and a list of images for which no assignment exists.
[ ] The release files, indexed by image rather than by shoot.
[ ] Every agency agreement, with attention to whether images were licensed in the agency's name and whether the licenses transfer.
[ ] Supplier-provided imagery and the warranty in the supply agreements.
[ ] Any demand letters, takedowns, or claims concerning images, and their resolution.
[ ] The metadata configuration of the content pipeline.

What to price.

[ ] Images in active use with no documented license — the replacement cost, plus the exposure for past use.
[ ] Images licensed under terms the buyer's intended use will exceed — territory, media, volume — because a buyer expanding a brand into new markets is making a new use of every image.
[ ] Commissioned photography with no assignment, which the seller does not own and therefore cannot convey.
[ ] Missing releases for identifiable people in commercial images.

What the seller should do before a process.

[ ] Build the inventory from images in active use. Twelve weeks and $20,000 to $70,000, against a diligence finding that gets priced into the deal at a multiple of that.
[ ] Obtain assignments for commissioned work while the photographer relationships are intact.
[ ] Replace images of unknown provenance rather than researching them.
[ ] Confirm agency licenses are in the company's name, or obtain assignments.
[ ] See IP Due Diligence Toolkit; Trademark Due Diligence in Mergers and Acquisitions; Trademark Due Diligence Checklist.

Phase 13A — The takedown route, when the image is on a platform

Where the unauthorized use sits on a platform rather than on a website the infringer controls, the 17 U.S.C. § 512 notice-and-takedown process is faster and cheaper than anything else in this checklist.

[ ] Confirm the platform qualifies and locate its designated agent.
[ ] Draft a notice containing the six statutory elements: a signature; identification of the copyrighted work; identification of the material to be removed with enough information to locate it; contact information; a good-faith belief statement; and a statement under penalty of perjury that the information is accurate and that the sender is authorized to act.
[ ] Consider fair use before sending. A sender must consider whether the use is fair, and a notice sent without that consideration exposes the sender to a misrepresentation claim under 17 U.S.C. § 512(f).
[ ] Expect a counter-notice, and know the consequence: the platform may restore the material after the statutory period unless the sender files suit.
[ ] Track the platform's repeat-infringer policy, which is where a pattern of notices against the same account produces a durable result rather than a temporary one.
[ ] Do not use takedowns as a substitute for licensing enforcement against a commercial infringer with assets. A takedown removes the material; it recovers nothing.
[ ] See Sending and Fighting a DMCA Takedown; DMCA Takedown Notice Checklist; The DMCA Safe Harbor.

Phase 14 — Run the photographer's checklist

[ ] Register in groups, on a schedule. Timely registration under 17 U.S.C. § 412 converts a $400 licensing fee into a viable claim. See Registering a Copyright.
[ ] Embed metadata and archive originals with CMI intact.
[ ] License rather than assign by default; price assignment substantially higher.
[ ] Define usage by medium, territory, duration, and volume.
[ ] Bound exclusivity by category, territory, and term.
- Trap. An unbounded exclusive license is an assignment with extra steps and should be priced as one.
[ ] Insist on credit and on approval over composites and substantive alterations.
[ ] Cap the indemnity and limit the warranty to what you control.
[ ] Allocate release responsibility to whoever controlled the subject and the location.
[ ] Keep demands proportionate. A fee award turns on objective reasonableness. 17 U.S.C. § 505; Kirtsaeng v. John Wiley & Sons, Inc., 579 U.S. 197, 202-09 (2016).

Phase 15 — Budget and review

| Task | Elapsed | Cost | |---|---|---| | Engagement template fix | 1 week | $4k-$12k | | Retroactive assignment negotiation | 2-8 weeks | $6k-$40k + fee | | Stock license review, per campaign | 1-2 weeks | $5k-$18k | | Release program and templates | 2 weeks | $6k-$18k | | Metadata pipeline fix | 1 week | $3k-$10k | | UGC program build | 3-5 weeks | $12k-$35k | | Image inventory, initial build | 4-10 weeks | $20k-$70k | | Demand letter response | 1-3 weeks | $3k-$15k | | Litigated single-image claim | 9-18 months | $60k-$250k | | CCB proceeding | 6-14 months | $5k-$25k |

[ ] Present the preventive rows against the response rows. The prevention-to-response ratio in visual content is more favorable than almost anywhere in IP practice, because the preventive work is contract drafting and configuration rather than litigation.
[ ] Note the volume point: a company with 400 images in active use and no inventory does not have one problem, it has an unknown number of them.

Key Authorities at a Glance

| Authority | What it provides | Phase | |---|---|---| | 17 U.S.C. § 201(a) | Copyright vests in the author | 1 | | 17 U.S.C. § 101 | Work made for hire; nine categories | 1, 11 | | 17 U.S.C. § 204(a) | Transfers require a signed writing | 1 | | Community for Creative Non-Violence v. Reid, 490 U.S. 730 (1989) | Employee status | 1 | | 17 U.S.C. § 106(5) | Public display right | 7 | | Perfect 10, Inc. v. Amazon.com, Inc., 508 F.3d 1146 (9th Cir. 2007) | The server test | 7 | | 17 U.S.C. § 120(a) | Buildings visible from a public place | 5 | | 17 U.S.C. § 1202 | Copyright management information | 6 | | 17 U.S.C. § 1203 | Statutory damages for CMI violations | 6 | | 17 U.S.C. § 412 | Timely registration | 13, 14 | | 17 U.S.C. § 504(c) | Statutory damages | 13 | | 17 U.S.C. § 505 | Costs and fees | 13, 14 | | Kirtsaeng v. John Wiley & Sons, Inc., 579 U.S. 197 (2016) | Fee-award standard | 14 | | 17 U.S.C. § 107 | Fair use | 5 | | 17 U.S.C. § 512 | Takedowns | 13 | | 15 U.S.C. § 1125(a) | False endorsement | 5 | | 15 U.S.C. § 45 | FTC deception, for generated imagery | 9 |

The five things people get wrong

Assuming the client owns what it paid for. It does not, absent a signed assignment, and "all images delivered to Client" transfers nothing.

Discovering the license caps after the campaign. Impression and print-run caps are exceeded silently by success, and exceeding them voids the indemnity precisely when it is needed.

Using an editorial-only image in an advertisement. The restriction is not a technicality; it exists because the releases do not, and the exposure runs to parties the licensor cannot indemnify against.

Letting the pipeline strip metadata. It adds a separate statutory damages claim to every image the company publishes, and the fix is a configuration setting.

Having no inventory. Every recommendation here reduces to one spreadsheet, and no marketing department has it until after the first demand letter.