commercial rights

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taylorb

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Brenda
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Hi
I went to Herstmonceux castle for their medieval festival on Monday (great day despite the weather), but whilst taking photos of the re-enactments an official came up to me and said that I was not allowed to use any photos taken whilst visiting the event for commercial purposes. In fact he gave me a piece of paper with the following words on
' Visitors are not allowed to record and reproduce any pictures, video or sound of England's Medieval Festival at Herstmonceux Castle except for personal use, without the express written persmission from the organisers.' This is also printed in the event guide that you can buy. I have 2 queries, firstly as they are not the landowners (I know that landowners have the right to stop you taking photos if they wish) do they have the right to prevent you selling the photos to make money (not that I want to sell them)? And secondly I have a website that I use to promote my wedding and portrait business on which I now have a blog and I do want to put some of the photos on the blog to give me something to talk about this week, so can I put these pictures up there legally without their written permission as I do not intend to sell them, I just want to update the blog and so get more people looking at my website. So I guess the question is what is commercial use and is a blog personal use (even if it is on a site for a professional photographer)?

If there are any legal beavers out there that know what the law ison this matter I would be greatful for your input.
 
Commercial use is making money off something, even if it's indirectly (like making your comercial site look better so you get more business).
 
Quite frankly if they didn't make it a condition of entry i don't think they'd have a leg to stand on. If you have any photo's taken before you were advised of their restrictions i'd be quite happy to use them, be it for personal or commercial use. Even the ones taken afterwards i'd be inclined to use in a blog.

Do a Robert Maxwell - publish and sue anyone who argues with you :D

PS: this is not legal advice, just my opinion.
 
Were you presented with T&Cs either at the time of booking or along with the tickets?

If not (or you were but no mention was made of photography) then as above, they'd have a hard time preventing commercial use, although you'd have a hard time if the shots featured people and you didn't have a model release.

Changing the T&Cs after you've entered or only making them available in a programme you have to purchase isn't going to hold much water.

Of course I understand why they want to protect the usage rights, it is after all a commercial venture but more fool them for not doing it properly in the first place.

As for using shots on your blog I'd go right ahead. Would it be considered a commercial use by adding value to your website? Possibly, but they've weakened their case considerably because of the way they notified you of the T&Cs.
 
I just took another look at the website for the event, there are pages and pages of info and amungst it all (not under the legal part which only talks about data and images on the website) there is a PDF version of the brochure you can buy at the show and at the bottom of page 3 in small text as a 2nd bullet point under other information is the text about not using the images for commercial purposes. Not very easy to see or find and no one mention it when we bought the tickets at the gate. So I think I am going to go for it and put some on the blog and let try to sue.
 
I think there has to be a sign up near the entry point pointing out no photography, otherwise it would be impossible for them to be sure you even knew of the restriction, the person who spoke to you could have been anyone, did he produce any identification to prove he was one of the organisers? Can he prove in court you knew of the restriction? and also the "small print" has to be easily viewable, and if you were not told or made aware of the rules at the time of buying your tickets were you offered a refund when you were told? Wayne
 
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