Image licensing question

[TheNewbieDeveloper]

Hi All,

As a newbie iOS developer, I have a basic question about image licensing in apps.

I'm currently looking at an application called "Who's the Player??" (only as an example; not promoting it in any way). See it here: https://itunes.apple.com/au/app/whos-the-player/id659336346?mt=8.

Now when I use this app, I see heaps of pictures of Football players. There is no mention of image sources anywhere in the app.

There are many games with in-app purchases like this (with very high-quality images), and I would like to make some of my own. But have these developers purchased the images used in the app? I can see that this could potentially cost thousands.

Could anyone please give some clarification about this, it would be greatly appreciated!

Thanks in advance.

 

[dejo]

There are many games with in-app purchases like this (with very high-quality images), and I would like to make some of my own. But have these developers purchased the images used in the app? I can see that this could potentially cost thousands.

Could anyone please give some clarification about this, it would be greatly appreciated!

Thanks in advance.

Disclaimer: I am not a (copyright) lawyer.

If you don't own the copyright to images/content you use in an app, you are expected to properly license the use of them. Some developers do that. Others don't, in hopes they won't get caught, or are unaware they are supposed to. Depending on the terms of the license, properly-used images may not be required to give credit, so that might possibly explain why you see no source. I suspect though that, very frequently, images are used without the proper permission.

As to the cost, that all depends on who the images are licensed from. Some licensors may provide bulk libraries for a very cheap price. But, yeah, it could cost thousands of dollars. Or not.