Someone wants to take photos I took for them over to a third party for publication. What are my rights?

[american_x_gothic]

I took photos for a business to be used for their Facebook fan base only (and use in my portfolio), now this business wants me to hand over my raw images so a third party publication can use them. We had a verbal contract, but the photos being published was never mentioned. What are my rights to make sure I get proper credit?

[fhotoace]

You have ALL the rights. You own the copyright to all the photos you shoot unless you agree otherwise in writing.

You may sell them specific rights to use your photos for a specific period of time

You want and need MORE than just credit. Since you did this on speculation, you deserve payment for usage by anyone, third party or not.

My question is "how did they get hold of your RAW files? Unless someone pays for RAW files, they should be either on your computers hard drive or on a backup DVD

[Mike1942f]

"A verbal contract is worth the paper it is written on."
In one sense, you have full copyright ownership. If you have possession of the RAW files that you took (which normally contain information about the camera used to take them, I believe) then you could make an expensive court case that they have to pay you for further use. If you gave them a complete set and that is what they want to hand over, then you lost a lot of control. If they are just asking you now for the RAW and you had given them edited files for the fan base, then you have more control and a legitimate right to say, "You wanted files for your Facebook, etc., and I provided those. If you want something more, I was not employed by you and I own the files, so I have little control over the Facebook files you have, although we did not discuss extended use at the time, but I do not have to provide you with further access to my files unless you are willing to pay for that right and I want a signed document stating what you are buying, so we both have it in writing."
As for credit, do you want the 3rd party to put on the publications "Photo by YourName", then you have to see what the contract, agreement, etc. says and try to get them to sign it. And enforce it with the publication.

[Tim]

Without a written contract stating anything to the contrary, the copyright of the photos belongs 100% to you. The publication may not legally use your photos without permission.

You can negotiate additional payment since they want additional rights.


However, since you never got anything in writing before, the business might feel like you are trying to extort additional money from them, especially if they do not understand the law.


Credit is really irrelevant. No one reads the bylines except other photographers, and the advertising value to you is essentially zero. Since a publication wants to use the photos, you should be discussing payment, not credit.

[keerok]

You have the RAW images, and hopefully you still have what they want. Verbally inform them they have no right over the photos. You can follow that up with a contract to whatever terms you want. There will be some bargaining involved and it will up to you to decide on what you can have for what they want.