What are my rights to old photos?

clandestin_écureuil wrote:

It isn't as though you are losing huge amounts in royalties,
in fact it all sounds a rather eager and a little petty.

As it may be, however that is up to the OP to figure out for himself.

Matti Vuori wrote:
"none" wrote in news:Uaeck.166$0V1.104@trndny01:
I'm
sorry), do I have any rights as the original holder of these images?

a) Depends on where you live and what the local laws say about it. You
know, for example Sweden and China may have different copyright laws.

Copyright? China? I can't believe I saw these two words used in the
same sentence!! Are you some kinda comedian? That's funny.



b) Depends on what you really have agreed with the high school. Negatives
and their ownership have nothing to do with anything.




--
jer
email reply - I am not a 'ten'

In message merica,
Jer writes
Matti Vuori wrote:
"none" wrote in news:Uaeck.166$0V1.104@trndny01:
I'm
sorry), do I have any rights as the original holder of these images?
a) Depends on where you live and what the local laws say about it.
You know, for example Sweden and China may have different copyright
laws.

Copyright? China? I can't believe I saw these two words used in the
same sentence!! Are you some kinda comedian? That's funny.

China has copyright laws... they just respect international law in the
same way the US does.

Fortunately with China their wavering only tends to be things like
copyright and IP not illegally invading other countries and starting
wars
--
\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\
\/\/\/\/\ Chris Hills Staffs England /\/\/\/\/
\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/

Ron Hunter wrote:

Probably. Should you find a picture that you took, and for which you
still have the negative, I am sure the restaurant would be more than
willing to take down that (those) image(s). But wouldn't it be better
to just show them the negative, and ask them to put a sticker on it
saying that you graciously allowed them to use the image? Then everyone
wins.

I'm sure lawyers think lawyers should be involved.

Lawyers always do.

BugBear

On Sun, 06 Jul 2008 19:26:53 -0700, John McWilliams
wrote:

[rpd added back.]

nospam wrote:
In article Uaeck.166$0V1.104@trndny01, none wrote:

This is actually a copyright and ownership question, but I'm posting it here
because this is the most heavily trafficked photo newsgroup.

actually, you might try misc.legal, since this issue has more to do
with copyrights than it does photography, so i set the followup
accordingly.

Well, that's plain wrong. X-posting is a better way, but sending it off
to a group unknown and unused by 99.6% of the folks here is uninformed.

based on your description below, it sounds like it's worth at least
finding out what your options are. i'd suggest you contact a qualified
attorney who deals with these types of cases. most will offer a free
initial consultation, where you can find out if it's worth pursuing.

legal advice from a newsgroup is worth what you pay for it (arguably
less), since a qualified lawyer will tell you call one and discuss
specifics and a non-lawyer will probably get some things (if not a lot
of things) wrong.

Friends of ours called me with some surprise to say that while they were at
a local chain restaurant they noticed some old photos on the wall near their
table. When they took a closer look they discovered that they were photos
from my old high school, some of which were of plays which were done while I
was there. While I'm not sure yet, I'm concerned that some of these may be
photos that I took while I was there. Not only was I in a few of these
plays, but I also took many photos during informal and dress rehearsals. In
some cases the school asked if they could use some of my work for things
like posters and the yearbooks, but in no cases did I ever turn over the
negatives to them for their ownership. If I find that the high school gave
this restaurant permission to use some reproduced photos for which I still
own the negatives of (yes, this is before the days of digital, I'm sorry),
do I have any rights as the original holder of these images?


The photographer owns the copyright. Period. Or does he?
In this case, permission was granted to publish in posters and a
yearbook. NOT to be distributed publicly otherwise. That could
possibly be a breach of contract.

Were there others also doing the same thing? Could be the work of one
of them as well.

What you should do is print one of those photos and compare it to the
one posted. Then ask the owner of that poster how they obtained it. It
might be that the school just gave them away after their use.

Unless money changed hands for that poster, you probably don't have
much of a case. As no real written contract was signed, you just might
have to live with the flattery and ask the owner to post your name on
it as the photographer.