Terms of use

Overview of Service

Art of Visuals, LLC. (“Art of Visuals” or “we”) offers a platform for registered Users (“you” or “Users”, which include both licensees (“Buyers”) and licensors (“Sellers”) to license photography Content (defined below) in an online marketplace. Buyers can create and publish requests for specific types of photos (each a Request or Challenge but for the purposes of this Agreement, hereinafter both shall be called a Request), and Sellers can submit Content in response to a Request, for possible license. In addition, Art of Visuals hosts a collection of photos (the “Marketplace”) that it makes available to all Buyers for possible license through a searchable collection of photos where Buyers may purchase individually or as many items of Content as part of a Subscription period (called a “Subscription”). The amount of Content that may be downloaded during each Subscription period shall be that specified in a Buyer order. Content that is not used in any given Subscription period do expire and will not roll over to any subsequent Subscription period. Users or other Content owners can establish and upload their Content to an online profile, where such Content ("Profile Content"), may be licensed by Buyers directly from the Seller. Further information on how Users can request photos, submit Content, and license Content can be found below or in our FAQ’s.

Provided you use the Marketplace or Subscription Content in accordance with these Terms of Use, Art of Visuals provides Buyers with an indemnity from any claim based on its use of such Marketplace Content - up to $10,000.

Straight Talk: When you license on Art of Visuals you have great peace of mind.

CONTENT SELLERS RETAIN ALL OWNERSHIP IN THE CONTENT UPLOADED AND ONLY GRANT LIMITED RIGHTS TO ART OF VISUALS AND BUYERS AS DESCRIBED IN THE CONTENT LICENSE TERMS OUTLINED BELOW AND AS OTHERWISE COMMUNICATED BETWEEN A BUYER AND SELLER (E.G., IN A PARTICULAR REQUEST).

Acceptance of Terms

By accessing or using the Art of Visuals website, the Art of Visuals service, or any applications (including mobile applications) made available by Art of Visuals (together, the "Service"), however accessed, you, the User agree to be bound by these terms of use ("Terms of Use"). Please read these Terms of Use, Copyright Policies and the Art of Visuals Privacy Policy carefully. If you do not accept all of the terms contained in these policies, do not register for or use the Service.

Straight Talk: Play nice and follow all the rules.

Arbitration Notice YOU AGREE THAT DISPUTES BETWEEN YOU AND Art of Visuals WILL BE RESOLVED BY BINDING, INDIVIDUAL ARBITRATION AND YOU WAIVE YOUR RIGHT TO PARTICIPATE IN A CLASS ACTION LAWSUIT OR CLASSWIDE ARBITRATION. FOR FURTHER INFORMATION PLEASE CONSULT THE “ARBITRATION” SECTION BELOW.

Straight Talk: You won't sue us because we both agree to let someone who's a good listener help us 'talk it out'.

General Conditions of Use You must be at least 18 years old to register to use the Service. If you are registering to use the Service on behalf of a legal entity, (i) you must be the authorized representative of such entity; and (ii) with respect to any Buyer, have the full power and authority to bind Buyer to the License Grant; and (iii) if Buyer subsequently disputes such power or authority, you shall be liable for any failure of Buyer to comply with the terms of this Agreement.

Art of Visuals may, in its sole discretion, refuse to offer the Service to any person or entity and may change the eligibility criteria at any time.

Straight Talk: You gotta be 18 to use the service. While we hope we never have to practice it, we reserve the right to refuse service to anyone.

From time to time, Art of Visuals may change these Terms of Use. You agree that the updated terms of use (“Updated Terms”) shall become effective as of the date they are posted. Art of Visuals will give you reasonable notice before any Updated Terms become effective unless the changes are for legal or administrative reasons. If you object to the Updated Terms, your sole recourse is to terminate your use of the Service. Art of Visuals recommends that you check the Service from time to time to inform yourself of any changes in these Terms of Use or any of our other policies.

Straight Talk: Things change in this agreement from time to time.

Art of Visuasl takes reasonable measures to ensure that the Service is accessible 24 hours a day, seven days a week. We reserve the right, at our discretion, to take necessary technological, maintenance or security measures that may affect the accessibility of Service, including shut down of the Service. We will store digital files (including but not limited to images, graphics, audio and video clips, text and data (collectively, and including all Marketplace Content and Profile Content, “Content”) uploaded by a User to the Service in the same format as uploaded, but we will not be responsible for any loss, damage or alteration of the Content that occurs during the file transfer to or from our servers.

Straight Talk: Keep a back up of all your work.

Registration, Payment As part of your registration for the Service, you will be required to submit certain information so that we can set up your account. You may also be able to register through an existing social media site like Facebook, for example. We handle all such information in accordance with our Privacy Policy, which currently we limit to Service-related uses. In the event that you wish to license Content or get paid for licensed Content through the Service, you must register with the Service, provide certain personal information about payment details (the “Payment Data”) and agree to the applicable terms of use of an available payment facilitator then supported by Art of Visuals (currently PayPal and Stripe, however, the payment facilitators supported by the Service are subject to change from time to time). In the event that your Content is sold through a Third Party Partner Site, Art of Visuals shall compensate you as set forth in the Payout page of this Service and notice of these payments will be made to you in your Manager.

Straight Talk: We won't share your information with anyone. When your photo sells, you get paid through PayPal, and, please read these services Terms and Conditions and Privacy Policies carefully.

User Behavior You are solely and fully liable for all conduct, Content, Requests, User profiles and transactions that are made under your username and password. You are solely responsible for keeping your passwords safe and secure. You agree that while using the Service you will comply with the following rules:

You will not interfere with or disrupt the servers or networks connected to the Service; You will not transmit through the Service any unlawful, harassing, libelous, privacy invading, abusive, threatening, defamatory, vulgar, racist, or otherwise harmful material of any kind, including without limitation Content that depicts nudity, sexual conduct or violence; You will not disobey or breach these Terms of Use or any other applicable instructions conveyed by Art of Visuals; You will not violate any applicable local, state, national or international law, statute, ordinance, rule or regulation; You will not upload, post, e-mail, transmit or otherwise make available: (a) any Content or material that infringes upon a third party right, including, without limitation, copyright, trademark right of publicity or privacy or any other intellectual property rights; (b) any advertisements for yourself, your Content or your services; (c) any third party advertisements, including banner exchange services; (d) any software viruses, Trojan horses, worms or any other malicious application or code; or (e) any Content or material which may constitute or encourage conduct that is a criminal offense or civil wrong or otherwise violates any applicable law; You are legally responsible for the Content you make available on the Service. Other than the limited license grant, You retain ownership in, and are solely responsible for, the Content you post; You will not impersonate any person or entity, or make any false statement regarding his, her employment, agency or affiliation with any person or entity; You will not scrape or otherwise use any data mining, robots, or similar data gathering or extraction methods (except as may be the result of standard search engine protocols or technologies used by a search engine with our express consent). You will not solicit, create or submit unwanted email, comments, messages or other forms of commercial or harassing communications (a/k/a “spam”) to any other user. For the purposes of clarity, once you have posted a Request or submitted Content to a Request, you may not attempt a commercial transaction privately off of Art of Visuals. In the creation of an account Sellers and Buyers may post URLs in user profile information and Request details, however, you must not use domain names or web URLs in a Art of Visuals username without Art of Visuals’s prior written consent. You will not create false identities in order to circumvent Art of Visuals promotional programs to earn money, purchase your own photos, post political or promotional opinions, slander other users, or encourage fraudulent behavior. Such behavior will result in a removal of the User account. You will abide by these terms and conditions, Request creation and Content submission requirements as described in the FAQ's, including without limitation the information concerning Releases. You agree not to permit any third party to do any of the foregoing. Art of Visuals reserves the right to terminate the Service, Requests or remove any Content that does not comply with these Terms of Use or for any reason by Art of Visuals, in its sole discretion.

 

Straight Talk: Play nice or else.

Requests and Challenges Buyers can request photos for certain types of photos may create a photo based creative brief following the instructions detailed within the Service and in the Art of Visuals FAQ's. Sellers may need to reach a certain user level before they can respond to and participate on a Request.

Art of Visuals may also offer photo contests within the Service (“Art of Visuals Challenges”). Sellers who submit Content in response to a Request may also be eligible to submit to Art of Visuals Challenges that Art of Visuals or Buyers may run from time to time. Buyers may also license photos from Art of Visuals Challenges posted by Art of Visuals at anytime. Challenge photos are governed by the same Prohibited Uses defined below. Please be sure to read and understand the Challenges rules as posted on the Service.

Straight Talk: On Art of Visuals, Buyers make a creative brief for photos called 'Requests'; Art of Visuals or Buyers run photo contests called 'Challenges'.

Marketplace Content As part of its Services, Art of Visuals offers a Marketplace where Sellers' Content may be generally available for license (i.e., without responding to a specific Request) and where Buyers can search Content to license without creating a Request. Art of Visuals also offers a Subscription on the Service that allows Buyers to purchase a license to the Content from the Marketplace at a discount. When Buyers purchase a Subscription on the Service, Sellers agree to sell their Content according to the Services current Subscription fee, and as such, transaction fees will vary on Subscriptions. For Buyers, Subscriptions are billed monthly to the Buyer on the date of purchase and subsequently on a renewal date until canceled. “Renewal Date” means the calendar day of the month as noted on the Subscription order. For example, a June 1 order date would imply a July 1 Renewal Date and the first of every month thereafter. A Buyer Subscription will be automatically renewed for consecutive Subscription terms unless earlier terminated as set forth in this Agreement. Unless otherwise specified in the Subscription order, the number of Seat Licenses any Buyer User shall be limited to the Subscription plan details describing Seat Licenses (“Seat License”) and shall be defined by the number Users or persons gaining access to the Content in a Subscription, or, if a User accepting this Agreement on behalf of their employer, client or User account entity. For the sake of clarity, a Buyer shall have access to Seat Licenses on a “Silver” plan which provides 1 Seat License, the “Gold” plan which provides 5 Seat Licenses, and the “Agency” plan which provides 25 Seat Licenses. In addition, Art of Visuals, in its sole discretion, may review any Content submitted by Sellers as part of a Request or uploaded to their profile to be included to the Marketplace and subsequently any Subscription offering. Sellers have a right to exclude their Content from such offering on their Manager. A Seller's earning is determined by a the price of the Subscription plan and is detailed on the Service's Subscription page.

Straight Talk: We may choose some of your photos for our stock photo library called the 'Marketplace' and sell them individually or in a Subscription. Selles can opt out of selling photos this way on our website.

Art of Visuals may choose Content from the Marketplace to be designated as “Premium Content”. Premium Content is generally priced higher than other Marketplace Content because of its greater commercial potential, and if your Content is designated as Premium your ratings will improve. Sellers agree that all Premium Content shall be exclusive to the Art of Visuals platform unless and until the Content is removed by the Seller. See the License Grant for Marketplace Content below for more details.

Straight Talk: If we flag your photo as 'Premium' you promise to only let us license it on your behalf.

Profile Content Content uploaded to a Sellers' profile as samples of their work (“Profile Content”), but not included in the Marketplace, may also be made available for license to Buyers. Art of Visuals, in its sole discretion, may review any Content submitted by Sellers to their profile and include it in the Marketplace. Under no circumstances shall Art of Visuals indemnify Buyers who license Profile Content that is not chosen for the Marketplace. More information regarding use of Your profile, managing your Profile Content and maximizing your licensing opportunities, can be found in our FAQs. Our creative editors review all Photographers before they can submit to a Buyer's request. This ensures the highest quality standards for Buyers. Please do not include your own watermarks in uploaded Content. Photos uploaded to Art of Visuals are automatically watermarked to ensure your copyright protection. When a Buyer licenses Content hereunder, the watermark is removed when the Content is downloaded. If you upload a photo with your own watermark there may be technical or attribution issues, and opportunities for license may be diminished.

Straight Talk: Photos may be for sale on a user's profile but not all of them have the same indemnification guarantee from Art of Visuals, only those included in the Marketplace have it.

Attribution Art of Visuals will not remove any attribution with respect to Sellers' Content uploaded to the Service if provided by Seller. Buyer agrees that it shall provide attribution to the Seller in connection with any editorial use of Content licensed via Art of Visuals, unless the Seller waives any right to attribution directly. Notwithstanding the above, Art of Visuals shall not be responsible if the Buyer fails to credit the Sellers.

Straight Talk: If you license photos for editorial use, you will attribute the selling Photographer. Don't forget, but if it happens - it's not on us.