I have recent photographs of prominent public buildings that I want to use for commercial use such as advertising, websites, etc. and I need to know if I need to get copyright releases for them. also, are there certain situations in which i can sell them versus other situations? for example, can I sell them as framed copies to individual, private citizens but not to a company to use on their website or stock photography? or to trade publications but not for brochures? I've looked on the internet for copyright info and it's vague at best, not to mention down right difficult to find to begin with. please email me with any info at csmithphotography@hotmail.com
posting any info rather than email would be great....so others (like myself) can learn from the knowledge as well.
Tis is my post on another thread about tresspassing, but it also applies here: A little while back I had posted on another forum points similar to those made here. I was hit so hard by those who had already experianced this, that I eventually had to go to this web site: http://www.krages.com/phoright.htm You will get a wealth of information from it, and a downloadable guide to what you can and cannot do. Also there is a book to read: The Law (in plane english) for Photographers. by: Leonard D. Duboff Allworth Press; Revised edition (May 2002) ISBN: 1581152256
These questions come up on about every forum in the universe. The difference between copy right and releases gets blended sometimes. But the one I got in the most trouble for saying on a forem is copyright is a civil matter not a criminal one. (well maybe microsoft can get the government to do something but trust me we can't) As far as lawsuits go who do we want to sue. The bride who takes her proofs to walmart to send her aunt in california a copy or the mother who tries to enlarge everything so she wont have to pay for them. Or the guy who does it for her (him) The way the arguement started on the other forum was taking a picture down making a change reposting it to the same thread and saying see what I mean the background would be better fuzzy or some such thing. Every body started screaming copyright violations. I couldn't help myself I had to ask where are your damages. Answer from the others was my reputation. We are on forum you cant be serious. Well eventually I was asked to leave the forum for not playing the game. In my thirty plus years shooting and selling images I never sued anyone for copyright violations. It always seemed more throuble than it was worth. Now I do understand that several private locations around here ban cameras unless you pay a fee, but that isn't copyright nor is the image of their building as far as I know. It is just tresspass to go there, and that is criminal. If you fly over it in a helicopter and take the picture I seriously doubt that they could do anything. The long and short is don't steel images. If you want to swipe on of these low res images of mine here please have at it. if you make a buck send me fifty cents.
