Another Copyright question

treegazer

Hello fellow Dgrinners,
I have been lurking for quite a while and learning a lot from all of your experiences and perspectives.
Here is my question (scenerio).

There is an upstart production company that is organizing photo shoots for photographers, models, and organizations.
They have requested photographers to donate their skills and services to create images for a local non-profit to use for marketing.
In one of the replies from the organizer of the production company there was this statement "we will of course give you rights to the photos for your personal use."

So my question is this: Can they claim the primary rights to the images that I create and grant me the rights to use my images?

It seems to me in my understanding of Copyright that I would hold the primary image copyright and would grant the non-profit and the production company the limited use rights.

I appreciate all of your opinions on this.

Thanks,
Stacy Borden

orljustin

Depends what you sign to take part in it.

nipprdog

treegazer wrote: »

In one of the replies from the organizer of the production company there was this statement "we will of course give you rights to the photos for your personal use."

Run!!!!!!

orljustin wrote: »

Depends what you sign to take part in it.

Don't sign anything!!! Run !!!!

Angelo

Sounds like a basic "work-for-hire" scenario and should you choose to participate the images would indeed belong to the production company.

The variations and nuances in copyright and employment law are at least as long as my arm. There's plenty of research material assembled in the "Photog's Resources" sticky thread at the top of this forum.

.

treegazer

I am going to request their contract so I can review it and decide if I can live with their terms.
I may offer them my contract and see if they can live with my terms.

I've read through a lot of those stickys but looks like it's time to read through them again.

Thanks for the input.

Angelo

rereading your post I see you suggest they're requesting the donation of your work to benefit a non-profit. Here's how I'd handle it, assuming it's for a non-profit with whom I share certain sympathies: I'd offer an exclusive use agreement to the non-profit (NOT the production company) for a specified period of time, but retain copyright