Copyright documentation...advice needed.

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MrSix

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Name
Adam Swords
Edit My Images
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After some trouble with an Editor of a magazine selling my photographs on to a third party without my consent, I am looking for a contract or document which I can give to any clients in the future where they must agree that I own full copyrights to any images I provide them.

Obviously this isn't relevant for comissioned work, but for example I will be shooting a model in the near future for her portfolio and I want to make sure that I'm covered for when she hands them over to the agency.

Does anybody have such a document or contract that I could use/modify/borrow ?
 
Copyright stays with you unless you sign it over?
Nice to have it spelled out and confirmed though, true....
 
MrSix said:
Obviously this isn't relevant for comissioned work,
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Actually, I think it is. With commissioned work the fee can depend on the use to which the images will be put; small production run in a limited market sector vrs a worldwide billboard advertising campaign or 10+ million units of product packaging. You don't want to think that you've shot for the former only to find out that it's been used for the latter.
 
Phideaux, I understand - what I meant was that a contract where I retain the full copyright meaning the photographs couldn't be used anywhere by anybody other than myself wouldn't be relevant for work where I was handing over copyright (in any form) or supplying images for use elswhere.
 
A contract doesn't need to state you hold the copyright but it should specify the limits and rights under which the other person is entitled to use the images. If they're used outside of those terms then they've breached the contract.

What was the deal with the editor?
 
I can't say too much at the moment for legal reasons, but I did some freelance work for a national publication and supplied them with 500+ photos for a set fee. The photos were to be used in conjunction with an article in the magazine and also on the website. As it happened, the company who the article was about were sold the images without my knowledge and the photographs are now all over their website and promotional material with no creditation for it being my work. The editor actually stated that the photographs would never be passed on to a third party but he is now trying to make out that he owns the copyright to the photographs and that we had a verbal agreement, which is utter rubbish.

Does anybody have any reccomendation as to how I should word this 'terms and conditions', i.e. are there certain legal terms which I should be using? I was hoping there was a template for this type of thing...
 
MrSix said:
Phideaux, I understand - what I meant was that a contract where I retain the full copyright meaning the photographs couldn't be used anywhere by anybody other than myself wouldn't be relevant for work where I was handing over copyright (in any form) or supplying images for use elswhere.
Click to expand...

OK, it's just that I know some people think that because they've been commissioned to do a shoot, that the copyright belongs to the person who's commissioned them.
 
Any solicitor will provide you with a template for a fee. You could google up from templates from agencies, stock libraries, etc. but you'll need to adapt them and then get them checked by a solicitor. It's probably best to get it done by a professional in the first place rather than find out later that your contract was missing a key phrase or was worded badly on a point of law.

Did you have anything in writing/emails with the editor? If not it's probably going to come down to how much you were paid for the shots and was that a reasonable amount for giving up all the rights or was it closer to a fee just for the usage the magazine had.
 
pxl8 said:
Any solicitor will provide you with a template for a fee. You could google up from templates from agencies, stock libraries, etc. but you'll need to adapt them and then get them checked by a solicitor. It's probably best to get it done by a professional in the first place rather than find out later that your contract was missing a key phrase or was worded badly on a point of law.

Did you have anything in writing/emails with the editor? If not it's probably going to come down to how much you were paid for the shots and was that a reasonable amount for giving up all the rights or was it closer to a fee just for the usage the magazine had.
Click to expand...

£250 for over 500 photographs - not even close to an amount worthy of handing over full Copyright.
Nothing was in writing at all.
 
Any idea how much the magazine sold the images to the 3rd party for?
 
It's possible that the photographs were never sold directly, as in the company never paid specifically for the photographs, but were given the photographs as part of an ongoing deal with the publication where they had paid for coverage and advertising space. Either way, full resolution copies of my images were given to a third party for unrestricted use - which is totally illegal.
 
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