Calendar using aircraft photos

I work for a company that offers lubricants to the aviation industry. As I am lucky enough to get "sent" to airshows, I get the chance to take my camera along and take photographs as a hobby. I have attended a variety of public airshows including Oshkosh and Sun n' Fun. Many of the photos I take are of the acrobatic performers in their bright liveried aircraft showing a vast array of sponsors, incl. Red Bull, etc.

My company wants to produce a calendar for 2007 using a selection of my photos. I am happy to provide photos for this purpose but am very unsure on the copyright issues. If we want to use say a Red Bull aircraft photo, do we need their permission as the show was a public one? The calendar will be limited release (1000 copies) and given away free to customers, ie not sold for profit.

I would appreciate any advice on the legality of me providing 12 photos for use in the calendar recogising that the aircraft have many sponsors displayed on their paintwork.

Best Regards,

I prefer Go Fast!

However, Red Bull placed the logo on the plane for advertisement. If you are portraying the plane in a good light (so to speak) their advertising has been accomplished, and then some.

Unless you were specifically informed not to use the photos for any purpose other than personal use by the event, I would not hesitate to use them.

No worries.

If your company is selling the calendars, things could get a bit dicey. If they are giving them away, there is no sale-for-profit questions.

Though you are likely fine no matter what is on the planes, an additional thing to consider is that those advertisers paid good money to have their ads seen - why would they care if those ads got even wider distribution?

It's a photo of a plane, not of an advert. The advert is something that happens to be there but which is not the main subject. Also it's in public airspace so it should be fair game.