* People on the street have no expectation of privacy, so take as many pictures as you want.
* The photographer owns the picture, with or without a model release.
* if you plan to use the picture as art or in an editorial fashion (e.g. news), no model release is required. Display or sale of these images is fine.
* If you plan to use the picture as part of some commercial/promotional material, then the *publisher* of the picture needs the model release.

Finally – as a random person on the street, I’d be scared of signing some of the model releases that I have seen, that would give the photographer or anyone working with the photographer the right to publish my image as they see fit. Dan Heller’s site basically says: “if you do not have an intended use for the photo, there is no point in getting a model release”.

http://www.danheller.com/model-release.html

@ Natalie Norton – Great Idea, I will do that, thanks!

@ Mark : A lot of Papz clear the images after the fact or call them “news”

@ Harry Phillips… Bonjour [Dare you to call the French "idiots" to their faces?..That's not very nice mate]

I think you will find it’s not quite as clear cut as you suggest.. You can’t take a photo of me and sell it in SO many different instances and obviously that depends upon which country you’re in also .. A lot of the time you will find that if YOU sell a photo of ME then, if the person that buy it doesn’t ask you for a model release, they are responsible should any litigation arise – but saying that “only photos the author actually required a model release is the ones they intend to use for promotion” is very short sighted and untrue. Sorry, just popping in a fact…

Sime

What you do with that photo AFTER you take it is determined by whether you have a model release. You will notice that in this post it says:

If you want to use your portraits for print, promotion, sale, or posting, it’s important to cover yourself legally.

The only photos the author actually required a model release is the ones they intend to use for promotion. I can take your photo, blow it up to poster size and sell it. I can take Tom Cruises photo and do the same thing.

What I can’t do with Tom’s photo (or yours) without a model release is stick it on a billboard that says “Come Cruise with us”.

As for the paparatzzi, the photos they sell and the magazines run is not advertising or endorsing a product. They are photos of ‘news worthy’ event, the news worthiness of Britney Spears’ crotch is a whole other isse.

You are quite right – first be genuine, explain what you are searching for, courteous and sociable is a ++ You cannot do without a model release these days or else the photos stays in your draws!

How wrong you are, you only need a model release if you are using their image in advertising. You took the photo, you can do what you want, sell it, make a book out of it, about the only thing you can’t do is use their image to advertise the book, unless of course they signed a model release.

Marcus