Legal Forms...

[nighthunter310]

So I'm completely new to the whole legal side of photography, because I never really had to deal with it. But I was wondering if anyone could point me in the right direction.

I will be shooting some sports events for my local university. I am basically doing this on a voluntary basis, but the experience that I will gain is worth it to me for now, and I get to pick and choose what I shoot.

What kind of legal document should I have them sign if I basically want to keep all the rights to myself, but want to grant them the right to use my images?

The document they sent me now, pretty much has me give up the right to use any of the images myself, which I am of course not going to do.

Any suggestions would be much appreciated! Thanks!

[tracknut]

A "release" is a general term for a document that releases some or all of your rights. In this case, by default you own all rights to the images and the university owns none. You would "release" some or all of your rights to those photos by putting together a form that states what rights you are releasing (and it might be smart to also include a list of what rights you are NOT releasing as well).

Typically a "contract" is something that is used as an overall agreement about such things, and gives value to both sides. If the document they sent you says "you shoot for us for free, we get all the photos, you get experience", then they've got the part about both sides "getting something" covered, and included a release on your part. If that's not acceptable, then you're still in the contract negotiations stage of discussions.

If you have no other legal docs available, you might just take the contract they sent you and re-work it to be more acceptable, and then run it back by them.

Dave

[ssim]

While I have never ordered this, Amazon sells a Business and Legal Forms for Photographers. I do know some that have bought it and were happy with the purchase.

If you do a search for Business Forms for Photographers at Amazon.com you will also find several other books that cover the subjects you are asking about here.

There have been lots of threads on here that cover the subjects of legalities and associated topics. I don't have the time right now to hunt them down for you. I kind of sounds like you might be attending the university as well. If so why don't you try and hunt down some law students that could give you some free advice. Let's hope that they could give you better advice than you will get on an anonymous forum board. They certainly could help you reword the contract that the university gave you.

[PhotosGuy]

License of Rights

Since you used a descriptive title, the forum has done a mini-search for you. Look at the links at the very bottom left hand corner of this page.

[nighthunter310]

Thanks, all! I appreciate the advice! I will look into all the info. It's just so hard, since every situation seems so different and specific.