Copyright of Website Photos Question.

saoirse · May 21, 2007

Hi.

This is my first post here. Please let me know if I have posted in the wrong place. My question is as follows:

A few years ago I was in a business and at that time I allowed my photos to be used for that company's website. I have since, left the company and am no longer in the business. Do I have the right to ask for those photos to be removed? I never signed over any rights (that I can recall). I don't have a clue on the legalities of this. Any help would be appreciated. Thank you very much for reading this.

morydd · May 21, 2007

IANAL...

If you took the pictures as part of your employment with the company, they probably qualify as "work for hire" and the company owns the rights.

Alex_B · May 21, 2007

If you took the images in your spare time, and not in office hours, things might look different though. It also really depends on the type of job, on your contract, and on the country.

saoirse · May 21, 2007

Thanks for your help. These were various pictures I took in my free time, prior to being with the company. I also did not have a contract with that company, but worked in conjunction with them. It was in financial advising and in Canada. By the way, what does IANAL... mean?

Thanks.

Alex_B · May 21, 2007

saoirse said:
what does IANAL... mean?

JAFA!

just another F****** acronyom.

Yes, what does it mean???

morydd · May 22, 2007

I am not a lawyer.

In other words, I read some stuff on the intarweb, and then made this up to sound smarter than I am.

Alex_B · May 22, 2007

morydd said:
I am not a lawyer.

LOL, I never heard that one and could never have guessed it! To me it just sounded .. like I-anal ... like i-pod, i-phone, i-whatever :lmao:

skieur · May 23, 2007

Alex_B said:
If you took the images in your spare time, and not in office hours, things might look different though. It also really depends on the type of job, on your contract, and on the country.

Very good, Alex, only one minor mistake :mrgreen: It does not really depend much on the country. It is true in Canada, US, Britain and most other countries.

skieur

RMThompson · May 23, 2007

I would think that a cease and desist letter should be enough here, to tell them you own all rights to said photographs, and they no longer have the permission to use them.

If they decide to KEEP using them, well then you'd have to sue, and since I don't think they are making MONEY off of the actual pictures, damages could be very low.

Are the advertising a product? FOr example, if I worked under contract for XYZ Widgets, and XYZ Widget's CEO asked me if I could, on my spare time, take some pictures of their new product "Part ABC".

I give them the images of "Part ABC", as a freelance photographer and without writing it, a verbal contract is made that states they have the right to use these images..

If THAT is the situation, then you might be able to sue for damages since they are using your photograph to sell their product. If it's just pictures, of say their building or the surronding local area, then it's not going to be worth your time.

Of course this is all IMHO, and AFAIK since IANAL!