Image Licensing Policy

How we source images

Images on BellevueExplorer fall into one of four categories: (1) original photography we commission or take ourselves, (2) images licensed from a rights-holder or stock provider under a written license, (3) images submitted by a business owner along with a warranty that they hold the rights and grant us permission to publish, and (4) images used under a permissive license (e.g. Creative Commons) with attribution.

Rights and reuse

Unless an image is explicitly marked with a public-domain or Creative Commons license, all images on BellevueExplorer.com are protected by copyright and may not be copied, downloaded, scraped, republished, or used to train AI models without our prior written permission or the permission of the original rights-holder.

Editorial and press use

Journalists, editorial partners, and the businesses depicted may request permission to reuse a specific image via the contact page. Include the exact page URL, the image, the intended use, and the publication or channel.

Businesses submitting photography

By submitting photography through our listing form, claim flow, or contact channels, you warrant that you own the rights or have the rights-holder's permission, and you grant BellevueExplorer a non-exclusive, worldwide, royalty-free license to display, resize, and adapt the image for editorial and promotional coverage of the business on this site and its social channels.

Attribution and takedowns

We attribute third-party imagery on the page or in image metadata where required by the license. If you believe an image on this site infringes your copyright, please follow our DMCA Policy and we will act on valid notices expeditiously.

Image handling and protection

Original photography we commission or produce is stored in a private, access-controlled archive at full resolution; the versions served on BellevueExplorer.com are compressed, resized derivatives intended for on-page display only. Where appropriate, published derivatives carry a visible or embedded BellevueExplorer watermark, and we preserve image metadata (IPTC/EXIF copyright, credit, and source fields) where the format and delivery pipeline allow. Removing, altering, or stripping watermarks or copyright metadata is expressly prohibited and constitutes a violation of this policy in addition to any applicable copyright law.

AI training

No image on this site is licensed for use as input to train, fine-tune, or otherwise develop generative AI models. This restriction is in addition to any restriction imposed by the original rights-holder.