Is this Legal?

[symes]

I know that for many of the national hockey championships the Hockey Canada allows a photographer to take pictures of the event and sell them to the players if they want to buy them...

While I refereed at the Air Canada Championships there was a photographer who was taking pictures and selling them to the parents and kids. But he was also selling the images to younger kids who were all buying the photos of Sidney Crosby - anyone in the hockey world knows the kid as the "Next One."

When I spoke to him hehad received permission and does all of Hockey Canada's events in exchange for rights to use the pictures afterwards. He certainly made a mint that tournament.

so is he allowed to use the images because it is a Hockey Canada sanctionned event? Does that give him the right to do how he pleases with those photos?

Following the same logic is it then okay to get permission from a local Hockey tournament Coordinator to shoot a minor hockey tournament and sell the photos?

Please let me know your thoughts...

[Bruce Hamilton]

When I spoke to him hehad received permission and does all of Hockey Canada's events in exchange for rights to use the pictures afterwards.

Permission to use generally means on your web site or in your portfolio for the purposes of promoting yourself as a photographer. I don't know if Hockey Canada could give him the rights to sell them, and he'd need model releases from everyone involved if they did.

[symes]

Permission to use generally means on your web site or in your portfolio for the purposes of promoting yourself as a photographer. I don't know if Hockey Canada could give him the rights to sell them, and he'd need model releases from everyone involved if they did.

I am very sure he didn't have those...

but then how can the pictures of Professional Athletes be used by pro photographers? DO they have releases from every player involved or the league?

[Bruce Hamilton]

..but then how can the pictures of Professional Athletes be used by pro photographers? DO they have releases from every player involved or the league?

Professional photographers are there with media credentials, and most of them are employed by a publication... Newspaper, magazine, etc... The photographer himself does not need the model release because he can't sell the photo for his own gain, the publication (I think?) owns the copyrights. Since the photos are being used for editorial purposes, they probably don't need releases.

Someone like IndyJeff or RFMSports could clarify this better than I can. ;)