Sports - Legalities / Ethics

PetitePetite Registered Users Posts: 4 Beginner grinner
edited February 22, 2008 in Mind Your Own Business
Hello,

If I am shooting a sporting event at the local HS , MS or city league and I place the photos on the site for sale by the team,, athlete etc. Is thier a problem with doing this?????:scratch i.e. A parent that is irate thier kid is on the net.

What are my rights? there rights ect. :huh

Comments

  • harrysamuelharrysamuel Registered Users Posts: 6 Beginner grinner
    edited February 14, 2008
    is it legal
    taking the pictures is legal. The school can stop you, but not the parent. When you sell the picture is when you apply the law. If you sell it to the parent no model release is needed. Commercial sale of a person who can be identified is another matter. Do a web search for model release there are several web sites with more information. I would talk to the parent and tell him you will try to keep his son out of your pictures, and if he sees any on your web site you will remove, or blur his face. It does not pay to fight with him.

    My problem which I hope I can get an answer for is. I have been asked by a parent to take pictures of her child in a figure skating competion. The organization who is running it will probable say no. Do they have the legal right to stop me? The organization rents the rink for the day, they do not charge admission, and it is open to the public. I do not want to get anyone angry at me, but I do want this chance to do the photos, the person is an officer of the skating club and does not like the pictures the contracted vendor takes of the skaters.
  • PetitePetite Registered Users Posts: 4 Beginner grinner
    edited February 14, 2008
    Petite wrote:
    Hello,

    If I am shooting a sporting event at the local HS , MS or city league and I place the photos on the site for sale by the team,, athlete etc. Is thier a problem with doing this?????headscratch.gif i.e. A parent that is irate thier kid is on the net.

    What are my rights? there rights ect. eek7.gif
    _____________________
    Thank you for your Advice. I mainly shoot sports where my son in on the team. Should I contact the Athletic Director @ the school about taking pictures. I have taken pics of the track team and no one says anythng. I am thinking I might not want to put the issue on the table.

    I am not anticipating parent issues but just trying to think a head. I am really trying to build a sports photography portfolio. I would love to shoot for the paper one day. How does one do that by the way????
  • nipprdognipprdog Registered Users Posts: 660 Major grins
    edited February 14, 2008
    Petite wrote:
    Should I contact the Athletic Director @ the school about taking pictures.

    Yes. You should have done that first. IMO

    Are your galleries password protected?
    Jim

    http://www.knippixels.com
  • PetitePetite Registered Users Posts: 4 Beginner grinner
    edited February 15, 2008
    nipprdog wrote:
    Yes. You should have done that first. IMO

    Are your galleries password protected?

    _____________________

    I have not started my gallery as of yet. I am asking questions, researching etc Thus when I start I have no issues. The pics I took at the track practice where mainly my child but I did take a few other athletes for the art and experience of it all. However, as a business I am researching next steps.

    Thanks for the advise
  • bhambham Registered Users Posts: 1,303 Major grins
    edited February 18, 2008
    Petite wrote:
    Hello,

    If I am shooting a sporting event at the local HS , MS or city league and I place the photos on the site for sale by the team,, athlete etc. Is thier a problem with doing this?????headscratch.gif i.e. A parent that is irate thier kid is on the net.

    What are my rights? there rights ect. eek7.gif

    Its a public event and you have a right to take photos. The parent can ask you to take the photo down and you might be wise to do so, but by no means does the parent have a legal right to tell you to do so. I would take it down and explain politely what I was doing and that most parents are happy to see good shots of their kids that they could purchase, blah blah blah.


    You think that parent is irrate, take a read of this article in the washington post about a photographer that took photos at a track meet. The girl became famous pretty much overnight, and the parents don't like it. But all the photos are now even easier to find due to all the additional links, stories, etc.

    Just because something is on the internet doesn't mean everybody will see it. Hell sometimes its down right hard to find things you are looking for. Unless you are keywording it big time to get in search engine results, etc.


    http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/05/28/AR2007052801370.html
    "A photo is like a hamburger. You can get one from McDonalds for $1, one from Chili's for $5, or one from Ruth's Chris for $15. You usually get what you pay for, but don't expect a Ruth's Chris burger at a McDonalds price, if you want that, go cook it yourself." - me
  • AngeloAngelo Super Moderators Posts: 8,937 moderator
    edited February 18, 2008
    search is your friend
    at the top of the MYOB forum is a "sticky" titiled "Photogs resources....."

    everything you could need regarding law, releases, copyright, can be found there.
    www.angelo.smugmug.com

    Moderator of: Location, Location, Location , Mind Your Own Business & Other Cool Shots
  • TuttleImagesTuttleImages Registered Users Posts: 16 Big grins
    edited February 19, 2008
    I shoot pics of my sons during their gymnastics competitions and shoot the other boys on the team - I place them in a password protected area of my site and email the when updated. The only complaints I've gotten are from other parents of other levels wanting me to come shoot their kids! I will not put the shots "in the open" due to the other comments regarding predators.
    --
    Central Ohio Portrait and Wedding Photography
    http://www.TuttleImages.com
    Flickr
  • gman33gman33 Registered Users Posts: 279 Major grins
    edited February 20, 2008
    Just curious....did you get a background check done by your state? Anyone involved with our league needs to get one. Now I was not asked, but I was proactive and had one done. What if you are a predator taking pictures of the kids? Just a thought to cover yourself.

    I shoot mostly football and you never know what people are going to think if they do not know you...it is ashame we live in sick world

    Best of luck
    Ed
    Ed G - Philadelphia, PA
    http://ergphoto.smugmug.com
  • tonichelletonichelle Registered Users Posts: 144 Major grins
    edited February 21, 2008
    harrysamuel wrote:
    My problem which I hope I can get an answer for is. I have been asked by a parent to take pictures of her child in a figure skating competion. The organization who is running it will probable say no. Do they have the legal right to stop me? The organization rents the rink for the day, they do not charge admission, and it is open to the public.

    Is it a USFSA sanctioned event? If it is then yeah you're out of luck... I just got my butt nailed for having the photos from the US Nationals up on my site and I forgot to take the option to purchase them off of the website. They also get upset if a parent asks a photographer to come in. normally USFSA sanctioned events have an official photog.


    ETA - this is only a sale issue though. you can take the photos and give them to the parent so long as you are not compensated in anyway. the taking of the photos is not illegal, the $$ part is (even reimbursement of photos is a no no)

    It's stupid, I understand why they do it at a national level because of the legalities with the media sources and all, but local events also go by these same rules. Don't even get me started on internal politics in figure skating!
    "It's only an island if you look at it from the water."
  • bhambham Registered Users Posts: 1,303 Major grins
    edited February 22, 2008
    It it pretty funny that newspapers can send a photographer to various events and then sell prints from their websites, but a local photographer isn't allowed to sell prints.

    Kinda like that a photographer isn't allowed to sell photos of active NCAA players but newspapers do it all the time.

    So the key is to form a company, call it a news company, then you should be able to claim you are media, (have a sports blog), then I guess you qualify to sell photos. Or make an agreement with a local paper that you will shoot for free if you get 80% of online sales of your photos. That could be profitable for both.
    "A photo is like a hamburger. You can get one from McDonalds for $1, one from Chili's for $5, or one from Ruth's Chris for $15. You usually get what you pay for, but don't expect a Ruth's Chris burger at a McDonalds price, if you want that, go cook it yourself." - me
  • FoocharFoochar Registered Users Posts: 135 Major grins
    edited February 22, 2008
    bham wrote:
    It it pretty funny that newspapers can send a photographer to various events and then sell prints from their websites, but a local photographer isn't allowed to sell prints.

    Kinda like that a photographer isn't allowed to sell photos of active NCAA players but newspapers do it all the time.

    So the key is to form a company, call it a news company, then you should be able to claim you are media, (have a sports blog), then I guess you qualify to sell photos. Or make an agreement with a local paper that you will shoot for free if you get 80% of online sales of your photos. That could be profitable for both.

    I was looking at the rules for my state's high school atheltic association recently (which mainly apply to state playoff games etc.) and they have a rule that newspapers etc. may only sell PUBLISHED photographs from events, even the newspaper photographer can't put up a gallery of all the shots (s)he took at a game.
    --Travis
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