Image rights, in plain English.

1. Who can upload a photograph

By uploading any image to Ryan Signature, you confirm that at least one of the following is true:

• You took the photograph yourself.
• You hold a written license from the photographer that allows the image to be used for personal, non-resale, commercial fabrication.
• The image is in the public domain or you otherwise have an unambiguous legal right to commission a derivative work from it.

If you cannot confirm one of the above, do not upload the image. Stock images, social-media photos taken by other people, and screenshots from films or shows are not eligible.

2. People in the image

If your photograph contains a person other than yourself, you confirm that you have their informed permission to commission this object — each adult person, individually. This applies to partners, parents, siblings, friends, and anyone whose face is recognizable.

For deceased individuals, we accept commissions from immediate family only, and may ask for a brief written confirmation of relationship.

3. Children and the FIRST YEAR CHRONICLE

Photographs of any person under 18 may only be uploaded by a parent or legal guardian. By uploading, you confirm that you hold parental responsibility under the law of the U.S. state where the child resides and that you consent on the child's behalf. Our service is not directed to children under 13, in compliance with the federal Children's Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA).

For the FIRST YEAR CHRONICLE specifically, we apply additional care:

• The piece is shipped only to the parent/guardian's address.
• Concept previews are sent only to the email address used at order.
• Children's photographs are never used for marketing, social media, testimonials, or any third-party purpose — including with a separate opt-in. The studio's marketing opt-in does not apply to images of minors.
• A guardian may request immediate, irreversible deletion at any time, including after delivery.

4. The license you grant us

For the limited purpose of producing and delivering your commissioned piece, you grant Ryan Signature Studio a non-exclusive, non-transferable, non-sublicensable, royalty-free, revocable license to:

• store the image on our secure systems;
• modify, crop, tonally adjust, and reproduce the image in the materials, dimensions, and number of pieces required to manufacture your order;
• share the image with the single maker assigned to your piece, who is bound by the same confidentiality obligations as the studio.

This license terminates automatically 60 days after delivery, or immediately upon a deletion request from you, whichever is sooner. (See §7 for retention rationale.)

5. What we will do with your image

• Use it to draft a hand-rendered concept preview, sent to you for approval before any wood is cut.
• Use it during fabrication and quality control of your specific piece.
• Hold it in our production records for 60 days post-delivery so that we can repair, remake, or warranty-replace your piece if needed.

6. What we will not do

• We will not sell, license, or transfer your image to any third party.
• We will not use your image in our marketing, portfolio, social media, or website testimonials without a separate, specific opt-in from you, requested in writing and revocable at any time.
• We will not use children's images for marketing under any circumstance.
• We will not retain copies on personal devices, cloud drives, or messaging apps. Images live only in our access-controlled production system.
• We will not train, sell to, or otherwise expose your image to generative AI systems.

7. How long we keep your image

We retain your image for 60 days after delivery, then permanently and irreversibly delete the original and all working copies. The retention window exists for one reason: if your piece is damaged in transit, lost, or shows a manufacturing defect, we can remake it without asking you to upload again.

You can request earlier deletion at any time by writing to [email protected]. We confirm completed deletions in writing within 30 days.

8. What we will refuse

We may decline to fabricate any image — and refund in full — if it contains:

• unlawful content, including child sexual abuse material, content glorifying violence against identifiable people, or copyrighted characters;
• identifiable people who have not, to our reasonable knowledge, consented;
• watermarks, agency stamps, or other indications the image is licensed by a third party;
• symbols, slogans, or marks promoting hatred against any protected class under U.S. federal or state civil-rights law.
• identifiable celebrities or public figures, where use would reasonably implicate state right-of-publicity laws (e.g., California Civil Code § 3344, New York Civil Rights Law § 50–51).

9. Your indemnity

You are responsible for ensuring you have the rights described in §1 and §2. If a third party brings a claim against Ryan Signature arising from an image you uploaded — for example, a copyright owner or a person depicted in the photograph — you agree to indemnify and hold the studio harmless for reasonable legal costs and any damages awarded, except to the extent caused by our own negligence or breach of this document.

10. Marketing opt-in (separate, optional)

We never use your image in marketing by default. If you'd like to allow it — anonymously or with attribution, your choice — you can opt in during checkout, or later by writing to us. The opt-in is granular (email mailout · website portfolio · social) and can be withdrawn at any time. Children's images are excluded from this option.

11. Removal & deletion requests

Email [email protected] from the address used to place the order, with the order reference. We confirm deletions in writing within 30 days. Backup copies are overwritten on the next backup rotation cycle, never longer than 60 days from the deletion date.

12. Changes to this document

We may update this document to reflect changes in law, infrastructure, or studio practice. Material changes will be emailed to active customers. The current version, with its effective date, lives on this page.

See also: Privacy · Terms of Commission · Refunds & Care.

Plain-language notes are not a substitute for the agreement itself. If anything is unclear, write to [email protected] and we will rephrase it.