Photography Laws

[JulieZ]

I took some amazing shots of a civil war reenactment, a public event, and I have the oppurtunity to sell my photographs. The participates are unaware of this. Should I continue on despite the fact that I have no concent from the "actors"? I've read all I can on the photography laws & although it is respectful to ask for permission, it is not illegal not too. Is there a comfort zone to this pondering newbie question?

Julie

[noreturnphotos]

I know the others here will have a better answer but.....
I watched a segment on the photoshop TV episode. They were discussing this very problem. They had an entertainment lawyer on to talk about the photographers rights and the subjects rights.
I would suggest that you make the effort to contact your District Attorney's office or State's office to be sure.
I think that being it was a public display.... but who knows anymore in our country!

[Bonish Photo]

This is a question that is asked thousands of times on another forum I'm a member of. 99% of the time, the answer is as long as it was a public event, you dont need to have permission.

If the event was private, then you would probably have to get model releases from the people in the photos. I know I've been to many events and taken photos of participants, the crowd and the actors or attendee's and have never had any conflict with selling photos afterwards.

[gldiana]

Agree with the above, as long as it is a public event you don't need permission.

[gdietzman]

My understanding is that the only issue isn't if a photo is taken at a public or private event, but also how the photo is being used. For instance, I can take photos of people on the street for use in editorial efforts, such as a newspaper article, since the expectation of privacy on a public street isn't very high. But it wouldn't be wise to use that same photograph in an advertising campaign without model releases.

Am I right here?

[Bonish Photo]

Yep, exactly right Gordon.

I submit photos to Alamy Stock Photography which is owned by Getty Images, and as long as you're submitting them for Editorial Use, then you dont need a model release.

[Chaos]

I know the others here will have a better answer but.....
I watched a segment on the photoshop TV episode. They were discussing this very problem. They had an entertainment lawyer on to talk about the photographers rights and the subjects rights.
I would suggest that you make the effort to contact your District Attorney's office or State's office to be sure.
I think that being it was a public display.... but who knows anymore in our country!

The issue concerns private torts of invasion of privacy and not a crime or an action that a governemnt brings so a state's attorney's office is not an agency that will be helpful.

There are four invasion of privacy torts, the most common being misappropriation which is using someone's likeness in promotion/advertising/endorsements with out their permission.

[Chaos]

This is a question that is asked thousands of times on another forum I'm a member of. 99% of the time, the answer is as long as it was a public event, you dont need to have permission.

If the event was private, then you would probably have to get model releases from the people in the photos. I know I've been to many events and taken photos of participants, the crowd and the actors or attendee's and have never had any conflict with selling photos afterwards.

The issue is NOT if the event was public or private. It is if the showing a person amounts to commercial/advertising/endorsement type uses without permission or if there were a contract created with the landowner or leasee not to use images as one of the conditions for being on the property.

[Chaos]

Agree with the above, as long as it is a public event you don't need permission.

If this were true, I could take your picture at a public event and use it for any commercial or promotional purpose I wanted, on billboards, TV commercials and so on and there would be nothing you could do about it. I'm confident you would not adopt the same position in that event. Fortunately for you and countless other people, the fact that an event is public or private is irrelevent to whether you can use their image for commercial purposes.

[Chaos]

as long as you're submitting them for Editorial Use, then you dont need a model release.

This response is correct.

[gldiana]

Agree with the above, as long as it is a public event you don't need permission.

If this were true, I could take your picture at a public event and use it for any commercial or promotional purpose I wanted, on billboards, TV commercials and so on and there would be nothing you could do about it. I'm confident you would not adopt the same position in that event. Fortunately for you and countless other people, the fact that an event is public or private is irrelevent to whether you can use their image for commercial purposes.

Yes I should've been more clear, it's valid for editorial use. It's actually valid also for selling as fine art, but not for advertising or sale of commercial product that are not the photo itself. The original poster was talking about selling her photographs (maybe you missed that), not making billboards to sell other products through the use of the photo, so my point still applies.