Copyright/Intellectual Properties/Legal Question?

Question

My band is in a number of pictures which professional photographers took. They sent live pictures of us to the organizer of the event and she is selling them. Where does everyone stand in this situation? Does my band face any legal action from the organizer or photographers for using and obtaining the pictures (for free)? Does the organizer face any legal action for selling the pictures?

I know this is an odd question and may be a little hard to digest...but any help is apprechiated! :D

Answer 1

You need to be more specific.

In general, the copyright to a photo belongs to the photographer, and as long as he took the pictures legally he can do what he wants with them.

However, if the photographer took the pictures as a 'work for hire', then the copyright may belong to the person who hired him.

As the subject of the photos you usually have no ownership interest in the pictures at all. You 'may', however, have a right to compensation for any commercial exploitation of your likeness. As an caveat to that, though, a lot of event contracts are written with a clause in which the bands specifically waive any right to such compensation - so read your contract.

Richard

Answer 2

If you have a written agreement with the photographer, they could be "work made for hire," where you could have asked for assignment of title (very unlikely) and otherwise the copyright is exclusively owned by the photographer. Anyone other than the copyright owner needs a license to copy, publish, distribute or publicly display them, or make derivative works.  Copyright infringement for profit is a federal crime.

Answer 3

The answer to all these separate questions is yes and no to all of them, depending on who pays the most legal fees, knows what powerful people, where you are located, who acts legally first, and on and on. Count yourselves lucky if it doesn't cost you anything, and "all publicity is good publicity", excluding the bad publicity and some of the obituaries. Regards, Larry.

Answer 4

You need to talk to an entertainment attorney.  it depends on exactly who the photos belong to and what the purpose is that you sent the photos to this organizer.  

Is your image copyrighted?  If not, try to do that.