A Quick One

[Bill Pierce]

This article will be of no interest whatsoever to some, of great interest to others. It’s easier than ever to “steal” pictures these days. I think I mentioned the Nixon picture referred to in the intro above appeared as an album cover in South America. Must have been a weird record. A read of the following article will be of interest to some of you.

https://petapixel.com/2021/07/08/yo...feed&utm_campaign=Feed:+petapixel+(PetaPixel)

 

[charjohncarter]

These articles always confuse me. I had a copyright incident where I was in the middle, this is small potatoes, but still a minor headache. I was 'hired' by the artistic director of a theatre company. I took thousands of digital photos for promotion of the plays. When the board of the company fired the director the question of 'ownership' or 'copyright' reared its head. Was I the owner, was the director the owner, or did the board have claim?

With the Covid virus and the Gig Worker law in California the board disbanded the company and I was not bothered. I still wonder what to do with the images.

This minor problem could also arise I think with photos of famous people: who has the right to use them.

 

[presspass]

Had that happen in the pre-digital era when an insurance company used an image I had given to a volunteer fire company. More than 45 years later, it still rankles. I still don’t post images on any website. I really wish I could get over that.

 

[willie_901]

Was I the owner, was the director the owner, or did the board have claim?

...

Without a contract in place, the person who pushed the shutter button owns the copyright. Typically the photographer licenses image usage to third parties.

A written contract could stipulate other parties own the copyright. In some cases the photographer assigns copyright to a third party. Years ago I was paid by a sports photography company to photograph a regional women's gymnastic event. A condition of employment was to assign the copyright to the company. This made sense to me.

For other commercial work I retained the copyright but granted a very liberal usage license to the client.

Verbal contracts are almost useless. If there's a dispute the situation devolves into a they-said I-said confrontation.

If the theatre art director hired you without a written contract in place, they were not doing their. job.

 

[charjohncarter]

I said 'hire' it was really 'asked' me to take the pictures. Over the years it went to thousands of images. I was completely a volunteer, and I verbally said that the art director could have ownership of the photos. I'm still fine with that, but the board assumed I was their volunteer employee. This led to editing conflicts between the art director and the board, I just stayed out of it. But there were times when the board would call me to do editing, I told them it was up to the art director.

As I said the Gig Economy law and Covid put an end to live local theatre in California so it is now a moot point.

Of course, I thank you for your very concise and clear explanation of my position. So thanks again.