Photographers Rights In Florida

[crissyanon]

Can some one tell me what the right are in Florida for taking photos in public. I was invited to a car show by a guy that is in a local classic car club to take photos. I met one of the members and asked permission to take a photo of the truck. Nothing in writing. I retouched 3 images (HDR, Black and White) and put them up of Face Book so the other members of the club could see them. I always put the copy right symbol on my images just in case some one wants to take them. Today I received a message from the owner of the truck on Face Book telling me he did NOT give me permission to copy right the image and he is worried I will sell the image. First of all I had no intention on selling the image and second of all it was a public event and did not think I would need a release to even take the picture. Any advise or links to what my right are would be great.
This guys has over 40 classic cars and is retired with a lot of money and I am unemployed and and take photos for fun or get 50 or 60 bucks if I am lucky for a shoot! Sounds like another greedy person worrying about money to me.

[Rentham]

Well, you don't need his permission to copyright the image. In the United States, you own the copyright when you take the picture (excepting things like work made for hire and similar scenarios). If you're in a public place, he doesn't have a reasonable expectation of privacy and you're most likely within your rights to take photos there.

You couldn't sell the image even if you wanted to, though, without a property release from him.

I would take the image down. While you haven't done anything wrong, per se, it's just not worth the aggravation.

[prabbit237]

Originally Posted by Rentham

Well, you don't need his permission to copyright the image. In the United States, you own the copyright when you take the picture (excepting things like work made for hire and similar scenarios). If you're in a public place, he doesn't have a reasonable expectation of privacy and you're most likely within your rights to take photos there.

Possibly wrong.

If the truck had some customized paint job (like flames or other pattern) or other modifications he may very well own a copyright on that and you WOULD be infringing on HIS copyright. But if it's just a plain solid color and stock body, there's no creativity so yes, in that case you'd hold the copyright.

Originally Posted by Rentham

You couldn't sell the image even if you wanted to, though, without a property release from him.

Definitely wrong.

You would only need a property release from him IF the truck is readily identifiable from other trucks of the same make/model/year (again, if it had some unique design, modifications, etc.) and IF you were using it in some sort of advertising context. I.e. you could sell the picture to the local newspaper for their article on car shows but, if it's a unique design, you could not sell it to Budweiser for use in a magazine ad. Same for taking a picture of someone at the car show.

Generally, you only need releases for buildings and people because both are considered unique even without copyright-able characteristics. If something else is unique enough to need a release, you probably also need the copyright release to do ANYTHING with it (even just post it on facebook.)

[Mike367]

This guy is an imbecile. I'm not a lawyer. but I don't believe he has any legal claim re: taking and selling of photos of his car in a public venue. You would probably need a release if you use it commercially, e.g. "Buy Joe's car wax", but unless it was on private property with restrictions on photography, editorial and artistic rights are yours.

It might be fun to attend all future car shows and post beautiful pictures of everyone else's cars, but not his. Why participate in a car show if you don't want publicity?

[Gulf Coast Girl]

Originally Posted by crissyanon

Today I received a message from the owner of the truck on Face Book telling me he did NOT give me permission to copy right the image and he is worried I will sell the image.

Uhhh I could be wrong here but I think he has no say-so whatsoever in your copyright on the image.... I'm pretty sure the law says if you took it, it's your image and you have copyright on it. He may be legally in the right to stop you from using it commercially, but as far as I know, the copyright is YOURS.... meaning even HE can't take and use the image without your say-so.

Now did he give you permission to take the photo? Was his permission even needed? Car show? Public Event? Surely you weren't the only one there with a camera taking pictures without explicit permission?


Post the picture here (or a link to it)..... let's see if this car is even worthy of the numbskull's protests

[BuddhaPi]

Originally Posted by Gulf Coast Girl

Post the picture here (or a link to it)..... let's see if this car is even worthy of the numbskull's protests

seconded!, please do share!

[crissyanon]

Here is the truck!

[bhursey]

Was the truck on public or private property? Read http://www.andrewkantor.com/legalrig...tographers.pdf It gows over what you can legaly do with a image and so on..

[BigFuzzy]

Is the "Aqua Blue Pools" something that might come into the equation since it appears to be a brand/business name?

[GreggObst]

Outside of the legal aspects of this situation, my question would be "why take a car or truck to a show if you don't want it to be seen ?". In 2011, being "seen" also means having it photographed and published on the Internet. I'm guessing this is an older person with that mind set where anything involving cameras or the Internet is always suspect. These are the same guys who stop their car and yell at me for taking a photo of someone's barn. They need to get over it and you need to ignore them.