need help regarding rights

[wainism]

hi,

if i have been enagaged by a firm A who is in turn engaged by a company B to shoot. who owns the rights to the photos? just to clarify that it should be all parties right? ie. me,the firm A and the company B?

also, if in the same scenario. say i took a shot. and a local newspaper wants to use the image for an article. should i charge? or i cant charge, because both my firm and the company says its ok that they use the image. or should i request that at least they acknowledge its my photo in the article?

thanks

 

[ortega]

it depends on your agreement with firm A

 

[vince123123]

not only with firm A, it also depends on Firm A's obligations to Firm B, ie you'd need to see both agreements.

 

[longkangman]

hi,

if i have been enagaged by a firm A who is in turn engaged by a company B to shoot. who owns the rights to the photos? just to clarify that it should be all parties right? ie. me,the firm A and the company B?

Go back to A as you are hire by firm A to take the photo shoot. Firm A interm sell it to B.

also, if in the same scenario. say i took a shot. and a local newspaper wants to use the image for an article. should i charge? or i cant charge, because both my firm and the company says its ok that they use the image. or should i request that at least they acknowledge its my photo in the article?

thanks

Firm A are you boss if he said yes, the rights belong to firm A. You can't charge.

If it is taken out of scope of your engagement with firm A, then the rights is yours.

 

[Del_CtrlnoAlt]

not only with firm A, it also depends on Firm A's obligations to Firm B, ie you'd need to see both agreements.

i think its very simple...

see his agreement with firm A, den if his agreement with firm A is he selling without reserves to them, den anything they do with the picture have nothing to do with him already.

if he is only giving the image for a 1 time use to firm A, which A in turn give an unlimited usage to firm B, den wat he gotta do is find that agreement, sue A den A have to pay the damages. or if firm A also give a 1 time use to firm B, den B went to use unlimited, den he sue A, den A sue B den B gotta pay damages. cos its in line mah, B does not have any link to brudder wainism... so how would they have to pay him then? so unless there is a breach, you have to find the link... its how it works.. unless B went to leech brudder's pic.. den its another case altogether.

but most likely, most firms are damn clever lah (not say clever... should be normal... money world)... they pay you on per hour or day or month basis, all your pictures taken during that time, automatically becomes the properties of the firm... (sad but true... cos u got wages, i pay u to shoot... u shoot, copyright to the company)

 

[ortega]

not automatically

as i said it depends on the agreement (read contract)
if you give away the rights to your images then you cannot take it back

 

[vince123123]

Well, whether automatic or not depends on the agreement - sometimes if its silent, its automatic.

Best to avoid speculation - scan both agreements and post here

If not practicable, find a lawyer and get proper legal advice.

Or else, you'd get a lot of speculation and half of which may not even be accurate.

 

[ortega]

automatically the rights belongs to the photographer
unless otherwise stated

 

[hangten]

With regards to rights, always, always, ALWAYS get it in writing. And don't leave any grey area. If you want to retain rights as photographer, put it in the contract. If you give away your rights to Firm A only, put that in the contract. If you and Firm A share the rights, put that in the contract and also state how the royalties will be paid out.

And so on and so on...

Without a written agreement, it will be difficult for you to dispute any usage of your photographs because the courts (especially local ones) usually require written proofs. If you challenge the usage of your photographs, be prepared for a costly lawsuit. You might as well just throw your photographs off a tall building and see who catches them.

This would apply to other copyright materials, e.g. written works, film, etc.

 

[wainism]

thanks so much with ur replies. guess it was a LL situation. cos the firm A i shooting for happens to be my close friends auntie's small publishing firm. so everything was verbal. and i am sort of on probation, so didnt think too much into these issues.

well, lesson learnt. will draft a contract next time!

thanks guys, hope others can learn from this

 

[vince123123]

:bigeyes: :bigeyes: :bigeyes:

automatically the rights belongs to the photographer
unless otherwise stated

 

[Zerstorer]

automatically the rights belongs to the photographer
unless otherwise stated

Only for personal work. In his case its commissioned work and the rights automatically belong to the employer who commissioned the shoot.

When so many parties are involved, it's hard to determine who has the rights unless expressively stated.