Okay, here we go again....COPYRIGHT's

[GTAltman]

Ladies and Gents, Photographers and Legal Experts of the Forum, I believe I have a unique question in regards to copyrights. I'll try to keep this as brief as possible.

The reason this is coming up is because we're going to be having a photography lesson as it relates to Realtors and their business (A Picture Is Worth Thousands of Dollars) and I was asked some copyright questions that I was able to definitively answer (based on this Forum) but stumbled on this one.

Say I take photos of the house. Say the house sells and there is now a new owner.

My question is this...
CAN I use those photo's for any reason I want (showing my remarkable photography skills to new prospective clients, sell them in an art gallery, have wall paper made with any of the photos)?

What if I was to use a 3rd party (i.e. Professional Photographer) to capture the home? Would they need a separate release, and could THEY use the shots for their portfolio?

Thanks in advance,
Gary Altman

[Doug Sundseth]

If you want legal advice, you need to talk to a lawyer. I am not a lawyer.

That said, this guy identifies himself as a lawyer and has a Photographer's Rights sheet that I've found useful.

[zona5101]

so lets say you owned a car and took a pic - you think the new owner can tell you what you can or can't do with the image?
Basically, what ever rights you had when you took the image remain.

Same with a 3rd party, they would retain the rights they had at the time of the image was taken.

ps: like Doug, I'm not a lawyer either and it would be funny if you tried to use a post from a guy with a cat avatar in court as your legal precedence. So probably a disclosure isn't really necessary from me

[UlpilotSC]

There's no apostrophe in COPYRIGHTs or photos in your use of it.

Also, no. They can't limit your use of the pictures.

As far as I know.

[GTAltman]

Originally Posted by Doug Sundseth

If you want legal advice, you need to talk to a lawyer. I am not a lawyer.

That said, this guy identifies himself as a lawyer and has a Photographer's Rights sheet that I've found useful.

Thanks for the link! :-)

Originally Posted by zona5101

so lets say you owned a car and took a pic - you think the new owner can tell you what you can or can't do with the image?
Basically, what ever rights you had when you took the image remain.

Same with a 3rd party, they would retain the rights they had at the time of the image was taken.

ps: like Doug, I'm not a lawyer either and it would be funny if you tried to use a post from a guy with a cat avatar in court as your legal precedence. So probably a disclosure isn't really necessary from me

Come on...I think the cat avatar is a nice touch! LOL
Thanks for the input and opinion. It's kinda what I thought, but wasn't 100% sure.

Originally Posted by UlpilotSC

There's no apostrophe in COPYRIGHTs or photos in your use of it.

Also, no. They can't limit your use of the pictures.

As far as I know.

I tried editing the subject line, but it wouldn't let me. Thanks for the grammatical correction ;-)

Thanks once again for the input. I think I'm seeing a consensus after polling the audience...image is a keeper, Final Answer!

GTA