Licensing Images

PCAP believes people should be compensated for use of their creative work for commercial purposes. We seek licensing fees from organizations that request use of creative work from PCAP programming. Typical licensing requests are for print publications, websites, and brochures.

PCAP asks program participants about permitted use on our literary review and annual exhibition submission forms. We ask if PCAP and if third parties (any individual or organization other than PCAP) can use the person's name (or pseudonym), creative work, and artist/writer statement. These permissions pertain to noncommercial uses; if we or another organization were to use creative work for commercial purposes (e.g. greeting cards, t-shirts) we would request additional permission from the artist and pay a licensing fee.

Since licensing work is not PCAP's mission, we only serve as the financial go-between when it is required. This includes payment to anyone incarcerated in an MDOC facility. MDOC has granted permission for PCAP to pay people for use of their work under the hobbycraft policy directive and has asked that all payments are made from PCAP to MDOC instead of from the third party to MDOC. PCAP invoices the third party, provides the work, accepts payment, sends payment to MDOC for deposit into the person's account, and sends notification to the person who created the work. If the person is not incarcerated, we connect them directly with the requestor to confirm the rate and payment. We have not worked out an arrangement with BOP for work created by people at FCI-Milan.

When PCAP receives a request to use work, our first step is to check the permissions. If permission to share is granted, we move on to negotiating a fee and arranging payment. We do not have a set fee, as budgets vary among organizations. Some may have standard fees (e.g. magazines), others may not have considered payment before (e.g. small nonprofit).

Recommended fees:

• $250 one-time use or publication of an image, excludes merchandise (e.g., t-shirts, artwork prints)
• $1,250 unlimited use of an image for publication and promotion, excludes merchandise (e.g., t-shirts, artwork prints)

If you or your organization would like to license an image you find in the PCAP Visual Art Database, contract pcapinfo@umich.edu.