What does the law say? Image rights?

[Cinka]

How about get in touch with him, agree to delete all of the old photos, and then re-shoot, using proper paperwork? You might lose a little time, but that's part of doing business.

That's exactly what I did last night. I'm waiting to hear back from him.

 

[hedonia]

If there's nothing illegal in them (ie its not child pornography), then I doubt that anyone would take the time to trace them back to you, even if they thought the subject matter was tacky. If he doesn't agree to a reshoot, and is still pushing for the photos, you can do a couple of things to make them (more) anonymous:
#1: Open your favorite image editing program. Make a new empty canvas the same # of pixels as the image. Open the image and copy it. Paste it into the empty canvas and save as a new file. This will save without any EXIF info or date/time stamp (besides the file creation date).
#2 Give him a generous number of prints, rather than the digital files. Order them from Costco or Shutterfly, and pay $.10 or so each.

and/or #3: If you think he's going to post them everywhere and put your name on them, make sure that he understands that WITHOUT A LICENSE OF RIGHTS from you, he cannot sell, reproduce or post those images anywhere. This is not exclusive to this arrangement; this is always how it works when you have the copyright to a photograph. Make sure he knows that in order to legally USE those photographs, he has to have a license of rights, from you, and give him one that specifically states that you take no responsibility for the content of the photographs, and that you do not want them credited to you.
#4 Alternately, give him the copyright. Write up a document that transfers copyright to him, and wash your hands of the issue.

I think that what would make you most happy would be a reshoot, so these are just suggestions in case he refuses. Be sure, if you're doing a reshoot, to have a contract. And if you decide to settle in another way, be sure to get it in writing that your obligations have been executed in full. Good luck!

 

[Cinka]

hedonia, thanks so much for your reply. Really helpful information and stuff I didn't think about.

I'm so glad everyone has been so helpful in this situation. It's been a "live and learn" situation, which in the end makes me a better business person, I guess. It's not the artistic or technical stuff that gets you, it's these weird situations that arise. All I can do is learn from them.

Thanks again everyone!

 

[Mystwalker]

You sound like you do not want to give pix to him because you do not want pix to come back to haunt you.

Why not sign over rights, etc (everything) over to him so that whatever happens to pix will be his responsibility?

I'm assuming you want nothing to do with the pictures in question.

 

[Nimitz]

How about having him sign a legal document stating that he will never use the images for any commercial intent nor disclose who the photographer was that took them or ever indicate in any fashion who the photographer was? While you still have some 'risk" here if he does not honor the contract at least you'd have legal recourse.

This is more messy then just getting him to agree to reshoot but when you make an agreement to do TFP, you've just agreed to a contract to provide prints. I assume your vebal contract didn't have any qualifying words like " ...only if the images come out good"?

As the previous poster said, you agreed to TFP so you owe it to the model to hold up your end of the bargin. You do not want to get a rap among models that you can't be trusted - you'll never be able to get anyone to shoot with ...