Hi. I have read through the license but I am unsure about the restrictions involving images used for product packaging.
It won't be the primary item for sale but it is part of the packaging of the product that will be sold
Is this allowed?
There is a fine line with this one, in my opinion. In the same way the cover of a book is often the main motivator in the purchase, so is packaging. In both, the image is a dominant part of the product. Because of that, I would suggest you contact the photographer or artist via the small "contact user" next to the image and under the person's icon, and directly ask for permission. You will be encouraging them, and if they give permission, then you have no concerns. Many people would be very happy to have their images used for packaging.
Packaging requires consent from the image owner as the image on the package is used to increase sales and you profit from the use of the image.
I will send you the 'form letter' that illustrates how easy it is for you to contact the image owner to get consent to use their image on your packaging.
Members would be thrilled to have their image on commercial packaging I would suspect.
One of my images of an English farm lane was requested to be used on packaging for an Australian company. Though puzzled by the seeming incongruity of this, I was happy to give permission to the company as they had given a reasonable description of what they wanted to do and had courteously asked permission first. I'm sure many other RGB image providers would have done the same.
What I don't like is someone asking to use an image but being vague about what they want it for and why. To me this is a sure sign that something is wrong, or at least that they are just plain bad-mannered. In such circumstances I will decline the request, as I don't wish to support someone who behaves like that.
Thank you so much everyone for your replies and thank you Cris for the email. I reached out to the creator of the image and thankfully, he granted me consent to use his image. But at least now I have better understanding of licensing and ethical bounds for using images for product packaging. :)