I was wondering if anyone can advise; is it acceptable to purchase stock images and reproduce these, or even market them as available designs?

For instance, I would like to make a Mickey Mouse cake, I just searched for royalty free stock images and it is possible to buy some Mickey Mouse images from a site which has personally assured me that I am specifically able to reproduce their images in cake form even though Mickey himself is copyrighted (Ill not give them free advertising here but PM me if youd like to know the site)

I dont want to take their word for it; is purchasing the right to use one of these images commercially acceptable or are these sites simply selling images they shouldnt be selling?
If this really is ok must the image be reproduced exactly or could they be used as a basis for design?

Hope you can advise and help us all!
Gray

If it were stock photos that were produced by the company or the company purchased the rights to these images from the photogs who took them then I'd say it would be ok. You purchased the rights from them. However, I highly doubt that this stock company has purchased the rights to an image of Mickey. PM me the name of the stock company if you want. I know of several reputable stock companies and would be interested in knowing if this is one of them (doubt it).

I have a website with a gallery of my own photos plus a blog where I regularly post my own photos. I have never given permission to anyone to use them but numerous photos of mine show up on these sites. Sometimes they have a disclaimer in teeny fonts but not always.

I would like to see this too.