Improper licensing of illegal use of video asset.

[mars lewis]

• Does Adobe pursue use or improper licensing of a contributors assets? A major New York News station is currently basing its entire graphics package for weather coverage of 2021 Hurricane events on this particular video assets. The asset in question has not been licensed in well over 12 weeks and if it is licensed, views of this asset have well exceeded 500,000 views. What is my recourse if asset was not legally or properly licensed for use by this organization?

[Abambo]

Just a thought: They may well have acquired a enhanced license well ahead of this use!

See here for more information on how to report suspected improper use of your assets: https://helpx.adobe.com/stock/contributor/help/content-usage.html

[mars lewis]

Were an enhanced license a factor the royalty would have reflected it and it would have been labeled "custom" license in the activity report. The asset has sold three times with never an enhanced license.

I'm trying to get Adobe to state whether this company has ever licensed the asset. If not I can at least pursue it through an attorney. If they have then I can stick to protocol and let Adobe handle it. At this point after getting replies from Adobe, I get the impression they don't really care or pursue misuse or unlicensed use of contributor assets. Hope I am wrong.

[Abambo]

You're welcome to proceed as you like. Except for the links and pointing out to procedures, you can't get help from the forum in this matter. I'll move this to the stock contributor's forum, however.

[Test Screen Name]

I'm not a lawyer, but I was looking at the terms and noticed this for enhanced video licenses: "Include the asset in email marketing, mobile advertising, or a broadcast or digital program if the expected number of viewers is fewer than 500,000"

One interpretation of this is that the limit is 500,000 viewers PER BROADCAST, not a total over time. Obviously you'd need a lawyer to tell you what their interpretation is.

[Test Screen Name]

Sorry to correct myself. The text comes from the standard license; it's the enhanced license which says "Reproduce the asset beyond the 500,000 copy/viewer restriction."

[MatHayward · Accepted solution]

Video assets are provided an Enhanced license which allows for unlimited views. 

https://stock.adobe.com/license-terms

Kind regards,

Mat Hayward 

[mars lewis]

So there is no standard license for video assets? / and a contributor can never make a higher than standard royalty?  That's ok with me if that's the terms - just seems like that would not be the case - that a license would contain some limitation of use at a certain number of views.

[Abambo]

If it is a video asset, you always make the highest royalty. You can't make a lower than enhanced licence royalty.