Who Owns the Photos That I took at a casino tournament?

Jim did you ever hear anymore about the fireman shot? Last I heard it was up before an appeals court. The lower court had found in favor of the gas company. Anything different?

ok, to give you more information, it was not in America, it was an international game in the Baltics (North East Europe), however there were a lot of American players there, as well as Russian, Dutch, UK, Ireland, Swedish, Nerweigan etc..

I was paid small fee of less than 141.078 EUR (about 173.780 USD) for 4 days work (approx 3hrs 30mins per day). I spend my own time rotating and editing the pictures in software.

I was supposed to take the pictures at set times (i.e 2pm - 6pm Weds, 4pm - 7pm Saturday etc.) however I did turn up a lot in my own spare time, including showing up for a whole day when I was not meant to be there, or worked after the suggested time, and I took a lot of pictures in this extra 'personal' time. Surely I own the pictures that were taken then!?

It just so happened that the final day was rescheduled so that I worked between 2pm and 6pm instead of the agreed 6pm to 10pm.

The 'final' game finished at 5.55pm. Ok - so did I take all the pictures of the final game in my own time??? In which case do I own the pictures???

I am totally new to this, and it would have been great to have organised and negotiated a contract before hand, but the organisers were so busy organising accomodation for the players and runway times at the local airports for private jets, etc. etc. that nothing was agreed.

Hmm...

Confused Andrew
(thanks for all the response so far!)

That's the last I heard of it too.

andrewaaa5: Being that it was not in the USA changes things dramatically. Different countries have wide versions of copyright laws. You'll have to research that one.

Figure out how much time you spent, shooting, editting, traveling. Now divide by how much you were paid and see how much you made per hour. Not much huh? That is why you have to figure out these things ahead of the job and negotiate a price to do it. I would think that what you were paid in total would be a low cost just for one day of the event but, that is water under the bridge.
For the current situation, i.e.who owns the images, I would kiss this one good bye and try not to burn any bridges just to keep the contacts. Next time they call explain top them that for the amount of hours you worked last time and what they paid worked out to $2 an hour just isn't enough. Now you can negoatiate with them and get a better rate of pay. As for the ownership of the images, that too will have to be negotiated. Unfortunately for you, they will probaby not budge on price or ownership at which point it would be wise to simply say, "Thanks but I believe I will pass." They will find someone who has a Rebel and a couple of lenses to come in and think he is making money now.
If your stuff was good enough and they get someone who totally blows it, then someone will have his ass in hot water with the powers that be for going cheap on the photography end.

Personally, I walk away from about 30% of the work that is offered to me. I quit working in the $2-3 hour range back in the mid 70's. I have had people call me back after some clod came in and totally blew it and now they need it done ASAP and are willing to pay my price. Once a guy was very arrogant about my price being too high. When he hired a friend of someone who worked for him and they went to the printer, the printer simply stated he couldn't use what they had. Color was off and had been manipulated to the point he couldn't recover it, the images were soft and under exposed. He called me back and now had to have this work done by noon the next day. I just told him I was already booked and can't get it done. I thanked him and said that now my pricing didn't seem quite so outrageous did it? He agreed. Personally, I wouldn't work for him now if he called and doubled my rate.