Licences, credit lines and "all rights reserved": what they really do

Small print around pictures uses a handful of phrases again and again. "All rights reserved." "Photo: Jane Smith." "Licensed under Creative Commons." "For editorial use only." People copy these lines from site to site without knowing what they do.

This page explains each one in plain English, for the maker who wants to let people use her work on her terms, and for the business owner who uses other people's pictures.

This page is general information about the law in the United Kingdom. It is not legal advice. Before you sign or write a licence for real money, ask a solicitor.

How Bernard helps

• Today, the licence lives with the photo. Each photo's record card in your media library keeps who owns it, whether they must be credited, what the licence allows and when it expires. Paste the licence email or receipt into a chat and your assistant records it (am I allowed to use this photo?).
• Today, an expired licence does not go live. If a photo's licence has ended, or its terms say it is not cleared for the web, Bernard holds the photo back when you publish, and tells you which one and why (why can't I publish this photo?).
• Today, you can say you want to license your own work. The License your originals card at the foot of Your photos registers your interest in letting other people license your photos (license or sell my photos to others).
• Today, your name goes into your own photos. For the photos you say are yours, Bernard writes your name and copyright line into the copies it stores from then on. For a stock, licensed or client photo, it keeps the owner's own details and never puts your copyright on it (your name stays with your photos).
• Coming: a rights page that tells people how to ask for a licence.

The rest of this page explains what each phrase in the small print means.

A licence is permission

Copyright gives the owner the right to decide who may copy and share a work. Copying or sharing it without permission is an infringement, unless a legal exception applies. A licence is the permission.

A licence can say:

• what the other person may do (show it on a website, print it, change it);
• where (one website, one country, everywhere);
• for how long (a year, the life of a campaign, for ever); and
• on what conditions (a credit line, a fee, no changes).

There are two common kinds.

• A non-exclusive licence lets someone use the work. The owner can give the same permission to other people too. Most stock photos and most permissions between small businesses are like this.
• An exclusive licence is stricter. The Act says it must be in writing, signed by or for the owner, and let the licensee do the thing to the exclusion of all other people, the owner included.

A licence is not a sale

With a licence, the owner keeps the copyright. With an assignment, the copyright passes to someone else. The law treats an assignment seriously: it is not effective unless it is in writing, signed by or on behalf of the owner.

So a client who pays for a photo shoot does not own the copyright just because they paid. They have whatever permission you agreed. Write it down, and say whether it is a licence or an assignment. Do you own the photos on your website? explains who owns what in the first place.

A credit line is a condition, or a courtesy

A credit line is the "Photo: Jane Smith" beside a picture. It has two separate sources.

• A term of the licence. A licence can require a credit line. If it does, using the picture without the credit breaks the licence.
• A legal right, if you assert it. The law gives the maker of an artistic work a "moral right" to be named as the author when the work is published commercially or exhibited in public. The right is not infringed unless it has been asserted, for example in a signed written statement, or in the document that assigns the copyright. An employee's right does not apply to what the employer does with the work, under the exceptions.

So a name on a web page is good practice, but it is not the same as asserting the right. If being named matters to you, say so in writing in your agreements.

"All rights reserved" states your claim

A line such as "© 2026 Jane Smith. All rights reserved." tells people two things: who owns the work, and that you have not given general permission to use it.

It does not create the copyright. GOV.UK says that whether you mark the work or not does not affect the level of protection you have. And it does not stop anyone copying the picture. It makes your claim clear and tells people who to ask.

Creative Commons gives permission in advance

Creative Commons licences are ready-made licences that an owner can attach to a work. They give everyone some permission, on conditions, without a conversation.

The simplest, CC BY 4.0, lets anyone "copy and redistribute the material in any medium or format for any purpose, even commercially", and adapt it. The condition is attribution: "You must give appropriate credit, provide a link to the license, and indicate if changes were made." Other Creative Commons licences add conditions, such as no commercial use or no changes.

Think before you choose one for work you sell. Read the licence terms on the Creative Commons site first, so you know what other people may do with your work.

Stock photos: read the licence

A stock library sells a licence, not the picture. The licence says what you may do, and some licences limit where you may use a picture. If a licence uses words you are not sure of, such as "editorial use only", ask the library what it allows before you use the picture. Keep the licence with the picture, so you can show it later. In Bernard, that is the photo's record card, and the expiry date on the card is what lets Bernard hold the photo back when the licence ends.

Your terms, written where people can find them

For the photos you say are yours, Bernard writes your name and copyright line into the file today. A rights page that says how to ask for a licence is coming. Google says this kind of image information can make an image eligible for its Licensable badge. Google decides whether to show it.

If someone uses your work outside your terms, Someone copied my work. How do I prove it is mine? explains what to do.

Your next step in Bernard

Pick the stock and licensed photos on your site and ask your assistant: "Record the licence for this photo," with the receipt or email pasted in. If a licence has an end date, put it on the card. Bernard then holds the photo back from going live after that date, instead of you finding out from a letter.

Bernard is an AI-assisted website and marketing platform for small businesses. He builds a new site or moves an existing one, keeps it fast and readable to search and AI tools, and looks after it. Once measuring is on, he reads your numbers each week and suggests what to do next, with a button that does it. On the Nautilus Medium and Nautilus Large plans he also plans your marketing every six weeks and drafts your posts, emails and pages. Everything lands on a draft you approve. One flat price per site.

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