Commision and Copyrigth Question

[JerzyBin]

Hello,
I would like to ask more experienced photographers.

I have approached one of football clubs locally with the team in higher league with already brand name and asked if I could gain access to games and photograph.

Answer I got was that for shooting for instance youth teams, and sold pictures to parents they would want to have commission.
Second thing was that for big league games they would want 50 pictures of their choice copyright-free and for free. The rest I could use.

Since I am new in this game - can someone lead me what should I think about that?

Some of my work can be seen on my website
Jerzy Bin Photography

Cheers
Jerzy

[BuddhaPi]

I would think they were nuts...

[NathanFranke]

Yeah, that seems like they're trying to rip you off--in a big way. If you're doing all the work (shooting, printing, selling), then what are they doing to earn a commission? Also, 50 shots of their choice? Just say no.

[Hill Country Hack]

Jerzybin,

That does not sound like a good deal to me either. Having an American business mindset, I would have to tell them to pound sand.

The other side of the coin is how business is conducted in your neck of the woods. Different cultures have different approaches to conducting business. For example, not haggling with a non gold vendor in some middle eastern countries would be an insult.

[Jim Bryant]

Tell the copyright grabbers that their request suck and find some other photographer to cave into their request. If you start supply them, they will expect every photographer to do so.

[JerzyBin]

Thanks for replies.
I had the same feeling and tomorrow I will give the club the ring to say they went too far and I will look for a another club.

I am also thinking, if they want some cash for letting me to access the venue, would it be normal to be charged every time to get accreditation?

In the meanwhile I did some heavy metal gigs tonight...

[JFSanders]

Access passes usually have to be approved by venue management and sometimes by team management. I would go to the venue people and see what they require to gain access to the field. Over here you are required to have liability insurance and an umbrella policy that covers the venue in case you are sued for negligence or damage. It is usually provided in a rider policy that only costs when you use it or it sometimes is cheap enough that you can just pay for the year all at once.

As for the free forever photos, not on a bet. If they want to have promotional images made for the team then I would surely work with them on an appropriate budget and licensing agreement.

Jim

[andyw]

Originally Posted by JerzyBin

Hello,

Answer I got was that for shooting for instance youth teams, and sold pictures to parents they would want to have commission.
Second thing was that for big league games they would want 50 pictures of their choice copyright-free and for free. The rest I could use.


Cheers
Jerzy

OK I can just about live with the commission bit (depending on how much) but the "copyright free" - tell them to take a jump.
If they want unlimited usage or want the copyright then they pay (big bucks)

A few premier league football clubs tried this one in the UK and soon found out that there were no photographers/magazines/papers who would agree and they ended up getting some very bad publicity. There are a number of clubs however who now employ their own photographers to take the shots for home games and license those to papers etc.
Not a lot of them appear in the national press though.