AI Image Policy

AI Image Policy.

Last updated: 29 June 2026

PhotoSale is a marketplace for real photographs taken by real photographers in Australia. AI-generated images are not accepted, and the photographs hosted here cannot be used to train AI models. This page sets out the policy and how we enforce it.

1. What is not allowed for upload

Images generated end-to-end by a text-to-image model, including Midjourney, Stable Diffusion, DALL-E, Imagen, Firefly, and any successor.
Photographs that have been substantially modified by generative AI (such as adding people, swapping backgrounds, generative fill of large regions, or generative upscaling that invents detail not in the original).
Composites where a generative element is the focal subject, even if the base is a real photo.

2. What is allowed

Standard non-generative edits: exposure, white balance, crop, dodge and burn, sharpening, noise reduction, lens corrections.
Spot healing and content-aware fill used to remove dust, sensor spots, or a small distraction (less than 5 percent of the frame).
AI-assisted noise reduction or upscaling that improves the existing pixels without inventing new subjects.
Standard panorama and HDR stitching from photos you took.

If you are unsure whether an edit crosses the line, ask before you upload at photographers@photosale.net.

3. Use of hosted photos for AI training

Photos hosted on PhotoSale may not be used to train, fine-tune, or otherwise feed a machine learning model, whether commercial, academic, or open source. This restriction is a term of the buyer licence, the photographer agreement, and the site terms of service. It applies whether or not a photo is behind a paywall.

4. Signals we publish

robots.txt disallows known AI training crawlers (GPTBot, ClaudeBot, CCBot, Google-Extended, anthropic-ai, Amazonbot, FacebookBot, Bytespider, and others as they emerge).
noai and noimageai meta tags on every page that displays photos.
HTTP X-Robots-Tag: noai, noimageai on image responses.
IPTC metadata flag DigitalSourceType = trainedAlgorithmicMedia is not present on our photos. We add a positiveDigitalSourceType = digitalCapture marker.

5. Enforcement

We monitor for known crawlers and block their IP ranges at the edge. We pursue confirmed training users with takedown demands and, where the operator is identifiable and within reach of Australian or comparable law, with claims for damages.

6. Detection on upload

Uploaded photos are screened against published AI image classifiers. Photos flagged with high confidence are held for review before going public. False positives do happen; if your photo is held and you have the original camera file, send it to photographers@photosale.net and we will clear the photo quickly.

7. Consequences for breach

First breach by a photographer is handled by removal of the photo and a written warning.
A second breach removes the photographer from the platform.
Wilful breach (knowingly uploading AI imagery and labelling it as a real photo) removes the photographer immediately and forfeits any pending payout related to the listing.

8. Related

9. Contact

Questions or reports of suspected AI-generated content go to legal@photosale.net.