question

[wxnut]

Lets say for an example, a person hires me to take pictures of her dog. They end up looking really good, and somewhere down the road some dog food company sees the picture on my website, and wants to use the picture in an advertisement. I can do this with out permission from the owner of the dog right? I am not entitled to give them anything as far as profits off a picture they hired me to shoot right?

 

[Shutterbug]

Lets say for an example, a person hires me to take pictures of her dog. They end up looking really good, and somewhere down the road some dog food company sees the picture on my website, and wants to use the picture in an advertisement. I can do this with out permission from the owner of the dog right? I am not entitled to give them anything as far as profits off a picture they hired me to shoot right?

If it is pretty far down the line, the dog would probably be dead

From what I know, if you were hired to do something like that for a person, you would need her permission, because you were hired to take the pictures for THAT PERSON, which means you were just performing the act, and the images officially belong to him/her. If you shot the pictures and the person bought them from you it would be the other way around.

Of course, feel free to correct me if I'm wrong

 

[Hertz van Rental]

Lets say for an example, a person hires me to take pictures of her dog. They end up looking really good, and somewhere down the road some dog food company sees the picture on my website, and wants to use the picture in an advertisement. I can do this with out permission from the owner of the dog right? I am not entitled to give them anything as far as profits off a picture they hired me to shoot right?

If it is pretty far down the line, the dog would probably be dead

From what I know, if you were hired to do something like that for a person, you would need her permission, because you were hired to take the pictures for THAT PERSON, which means you were just performing the act, and the images officially belong to him/her. If you shot the pictures and the person bought them from you it would be the other way around.

Of course, feel free to correct me if I'm wrong

Quite correct. You have intellectual copyright - which means you can use the pictures to promote yourself (exhibitions, publicity, etc) without their permission, but that is all.
And if you ask people to model for you always make sure you get a model release form signed, else they can stop you using the pictures.

 

[wxnut]

Cool. Thanks.

Doug

 

[ksmattfish]

With anything you want to make money off of it's a good idea to get all the paperwork in order.

 

[Jamie R]

A few thoughts....

"Lets say for an example, a person hires me to take pictures of her dog."

The initial contract is then between you and the person, unless you agree to give away your negs. or digifiles. As it isn't a corporate contract, and is one which is likely to be spoken and taken in good faith rather than argued out cogently on paper, you retain your photographers' rights.

What you will need to check is whether you have a model release form, or whether the model needs to give explicit consent for release. If the model (or the dog) is dead, the relatives can can act out of interest for the deceased. So 'further down the line....' is not always a safe bet.

If for instance, if the www.beastiality.com website approach you for the images and you decide to sell the initial image to them without a model release form (from the dog and owner) then you are entitled to be sued american style. Similarly if the second sale of your image to an organisation enables it to be defaced, either by adding in a big turd where the owner has walked, or by adding an unkind caption, then similar unwarranted charges can be levied.

Another point of view which might be worth considering is that asking on an amateur forum is a recipe for disaster and offers conviction of viewpoint when a conviction in prison might be the realistic outcome. There are websites dedicated to the intricacies of the photographers' rights. Most photographers don't hire a personal lawyer to consult over the fine text of copyright, photographers rights and model rights etc so there is a degree of risk inherent in the work.

"I can do this with out permission from the owner of the dog right?"

---> Legal, but not necessarily ethical.

"I am not entitled to give them anything as far as profits off a picture they hired me to shoot right?"

No one would call this an entitlement. I presume you are thinking that if you subsequently earn from the images made in the first contract, then there is no duty of payment to the person who hired you. This is certainly how I work, although I endeavour to inform ex-clients that their work may be used by me in my capacity as a working photographer and that I will let them know if possible.

Good luck with it.

Good luck.