useage rights

[woodenfrog]

hello ,we are a commercial studio,but have one client who is a dance school.we started with them 4 years ago.the deal was we shoot all their portraits 350 of them,allso will shoot extras for their advertizeing. (we take 2 weeks to do this,the portraits are fast and easy its the comercial images that take time and we go out of the studio alot) we agreed to this as commition for the shoot but the owner is to give us credit and not alter the images..
welll ,,,,,she has benn altering the photos (we see them on the web and the news papper allot) and dosent give us photo credit. annyway after sevrall letters and sevral phone calls and sevrall conversations she still is not complying(keep in mind its been 4 years of this)
we told her we are done shooting for her but we still need credit or dont use them.


annyway ,,they need to comply with the agreement or take them down..
help what do we do to get this resolved??
thanks
Shannon

[amfoto1]

Hi Shannon,

Now, I'm no attorney, but here's my take on this situation, for what it's worth...

You can hold them to whatever terms you have in writing between you, i.e. in the usage license agreement that each of you signed when the photos were provided to them.

If, on the other hand, you made all these agreements verbally, well, I'm afraid a verbal agreement is only "worth as much as the paper it's on".

You do still own the copyright to the images, so long as you can prove that they are yours by producing the original images in court, if need be. Assuming you can prove ownership of the copyrights, you are in a position to say what can and can't be done with the images, and to ask people to stop using them, which they should do immediately. If they continue using them after you have asked them to stop, they are compounding their misuse and the courts may make that expensive for them. But, you have to be able to prove that you own the pictures and that you have asked them to stop using them, and when you did so.

Did you register your copyright on all the images? That should your first step (search the Internet for info on how to do it... the US gov copyright office website, for instance). This really should be done within 90 days of the first publication, in order to get the fullest statutory awards for any misuse. But, even now you can still register your copyright and that will put you in a strong position to dispute their misuse of your images.

The issue of attribution is another thing entirely, not really part of the copyright issue, but perhaps part of your licensing agreement. Presumably there is a written requirement for attribution in the licensing agreement. Even if there is, there are circumstances where it's just not possible for credit to be given. For example, it's usually not done in commercial usage, only in editorial usage. Still, if it's part of your written licensing agreement with them, they should comply in some of the situations you described.

The act of modifying and altering your images is an infringement on your copyright. They may think that by doing that they are "making the images their own, to do with as they please". They're not. This also is spelled out in copyright law and is something you can go after them about, whether or not you have a binding usage license in place with them.

You say you have sent letters and called. Did you send a registered letter and get a return receipt? Phone calls are not useful, but written communication that's documented can be evidence and proof.

Next step, you should meet with an attorney who is knowledgeable in copyright matters and intellectual property. They might send another letter to the dance school, on the law firm's letterhead, as a first step. It would be a final request for them to comply and remove your photos from the website and desist from any future usage, or face a lawsuit. If they fail to comply, the next step is to go to court and the attorney can advise better than we can.

Right now you should take screen shots of their misuse of your images on their website, before they take them down. Also keep full page tearsheets from the newspaper of any of your photos they are misusing in any way or failing to attribute properly. And, keep any other printed materials where they have misused your photos. All these can help make your case, if it comes to that.

Oh, and I don't mean this in a nasty way... I mean it constructively... But I'd suggest using Spellcheck, too. Perhaps you already do in your business documents, just not in quickly typed web postings when you are upset. Anyway, it might help you argue your case in the best possible way.

[woodenfrog]

HELLO,
THANKS FOR YOUR REPLY,
NO WORRIES I DO USE SPELL CHECK IN BIZZ DOCS. LOL
YES, WE HAVE PROOF OF THE COMUNICATIONS,EMAIL COPPYS AND HARD COPPYS
AND HAVE TALKED TO THE OWNER ABOUT IT AND TALKTG TO THE SCHOOL DIRECTER ABOUT IT AND SHE SIDES WITH US.ITS JUST THE OWNER THAT IS AVOIDING US ON THIS MATTER.
ILL GET TEAR SHEETS AND SCREEB SHOTS TOMORROW.
YES,,IN COMMERCIAL JOBS I DONT ASK FOR PHOTO CREDIT,BUT THEN AGIAN THEY BUY THE WORK.
THE AGREEMENT WAS VERBALL AND A HAND SHAKE.(SHE REFUSED PAPPERWORK)ONCE WE SAW THE MISS USE OF THE PHOTOS WE STARTED GIVEING HER PAPPERWORK OF THE AGREEMENT WITH NO RESPONSE.(4 YEARS OF THIS)

YUP,IMMA CALL A LAWER TOMMOROW,,THIS IS WHY I HATE WORKING FOR THE PUBLIC,WE ARE GONNA STAY WITH COMERCIAL CLIENTS FROM NOW ON.
HERES INFO ABOUT US IF YOUR WONDERING
http://www.scgrahamfoto.com/
THANKS FOR YOUR ADVICE AND SUPPORT,WE NEED A STAND BY ATTITUDE FROM OTHER SHOOTERS,
THANKS
SHANNON

[Floriantrojer.com]

Aaaah Capslock :neutral:

[woodenfrog]

update,,,i called my lawyer today he says we got a verry good case. waiting for a call back from PPI and ASMP to see what can happen. if it doesnt work for us then the lawyer is ready (verry ready)to go after the dance studio. The lawyer says that coppyright registration wont matter much in this case as their are over 5000 images to deal with.
ill keep ya posted