Need help from HS sport photographers

dadwtwins

One of my classmates from HS who is now the head coach of our HS baseball team asked me to take pictures of their city championship game. After I posted the pictures for the parents and kids to view, I received an email from the Athletic Commissioner of the League telling me I must remove the pictures from the site because of some rule that prohibits posting pictures of minors on public web sites.

Anyone ever here of this? Since the local paper, some sport web sites have posted pictures as well, why in the hell would they go after me.:scratch

Thank you for any advice you may have.

attorneyjay

I have posted thousands of pics of high school athletes on my public website but I've never heard of such a restriction. Whoever is telling you this is mistaken - ask for the legal authority/basis for such a supposed prohibition. He will not be able to provide it.

Maybe he means that their organization has some sort of restriction on posting photos of their players on their own website so they don't want others posting them either. I randomly showed up at a pre-teen football league game once to take pics. The guy in charge there told me they have a league website and parents have to sign releases before their kids' pics are posted. He asked me not to publish mine on my website since some parents were skittish about it. I complied, but there is no such legal prohibition as long as you are not using somebody's image as an endorsement or for advertising. If so, you'd need a model release.

You are right that pictures of minors are routinely legally published in the media and on the web . He is confused or ignorant of the law. Ask for clarification as to what he really means.

aktse

dadwtwins wrote:

One of my classmates from HS who is now the head coach of our HS baseball team asked me to take pictures of their city championship game. After I posted the pictures for the parents and kids to view, I received an email from the Athletic Commissioner of the League telling me I must remove the pictures from the site because of some rule that prohibits posting pictures of minors on public web sites.

Anyone ever here of this? Since the local paper, some sport web sites have posted pictures as well, why in the hell would they go after me.

Thank you for any advice you may have.

Do some searches in the "Mind your Business" section, especially in the stickies.

In a nutshell, it's under fair use if you're on public land and if you're not doing it for commercial (e.g. an ad campaign) purpose.

edited: and they're probably going after you because you didn't give them a kick-back.

kiz5

Its legal, because its not for commercial purposes. Even selling to parents, doesn't make it illegal.

aktse

Another good read on photographer's rights

ian408

My advice to you is to take the pictures down or just hide the gallery while you sort this out. In fact, if you suggest making the gallery private and sharing the details with parents only, that might satisfy everyone.

Do ask for a meeting with the athletic commissioner and sort it out and move on from there. No one here can advise you as to any contract terms or legal requirements that might be made by the school district or the league.

I'm guessing a successful resolution is just a phone call away.

dadwtwins

ian408 wrote:

My advice to you is to take the pictures down or just hide the gallery while you sort this out. In fact, if you suggest making the gallery private and sharing the details with parents only, that might satisfy everyone.

Do ask for a meeting with the athletic commissioner and sort it out and move on from there. No one here can advise you as to any contract terms or legal requirements that might be made by the school district or the league.

I'm guessing a successful resolution is just a phone call away.

I am not one to argue or push my will on items like this but the Coaches from both teams were very upset with the league making an issue after the fact. The commissioner was the one that let me onto the field and into the photographers box area. I had a feeling that Maxprep's (website for HS sports) photographer and the Giants photographer that were standing side by side with me during the game had a lot of influence on the commissioners email that was sent to me.

Instead of going back and forth by email, I did as you advised. I called him and talked to him over the phone. He explained that since the SF Giants organization allowed the city championship to be played on AT&T's field, they wanted the exclusive rights to sell photos. After this explanation, I simply told the commissioner that none of the photos I took will be sold and they were for viewing purposes only as well as to be used on the school's web site. All parties agreed and everyone went home satisfied:D

Thank you everyone for your inputs. This was a huge lesson for me into the battle of HS sports photo contracts and photo rights as a freelance photographer.

ian408

I'm glad you were able to do something. it's too bad they made an issue of it after the fact (though MaxPrep tends to have contracts in place for all they shoot and it should have been clear that SF Giants organization wanted something as well).