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| *SoulEyes Photography>>>Advertising Photographer |
Use of photos I took for a company while employee? |
I just left my job with a big (the biggest) retailer. I was a staff photographer. I am now using the images i shot for them to promote myself as a photographer. I then got a letter from there lagal department that i can't use those images...any help here?? Every photographer, stylist...artist uses those images...it's our resume...I respect copyright laws. But I'm not selling the images, or selling the merch thats in the Photos. I'm just selling my talent as a photographer. And it's just more advertising for them as it's more visual impressions for there product... HELP OK, I'm not a lawyer, jiust an ex-photog who had similar issues. Very technically, showing or putting the photos on display has been interpreted as "publishing." But if what you describe is all you are doing they are real jerks for pushing the issue. OTH, if you signed any documents that acknowledge that all negatives, prints and images you produced during your employment are their property you have a problem. Your only recourse is to either stop or to hire a copyright attorney and fight them. Sorry! Wish I could be more help. Hopefully some of the photographs you took were advertising. There is effectively no copyright protection for advertising, so go ahead and use those. Even so, get them out of your portfolio as soon as you can. When you're trying to promote yourself, it really doesn't help to have an air of conflict around your work. Sorry to tell you this but those images belong to your former employer. It works like this, the time you spent doing those jobs were on company time, paid for with the company cash. If you had an expense account to pay for film, that was theirs too. Think a minute, please. Surely, you have other images that you can use. Done on your own time, with your own film, paid for out of your own pocket, and had nothing to do with what they paid you for. Unless you paid any part of the processing that you were never paid back for and you had receipts to prove it and the company refuses to pay for that work or you had a contract that the images you made could be used by yourself as part of your resume it is a case of S.O.L. It works the same way with patents, and copyrights. The company paid for your talents, so, everything you produced belongs to them until you leave their employment. The only thing you own is anything that has nothing to do with the product you made. Next time I would suggest that you get it in writing that you would like to use extra copies of what you make as a part of your resume, make sure it specifies that it will be used only for that purpose and is an extra benefit of your employment. You might get away with it. But don't be surprised if they say no. This is simple business law stuff. I don't see any problem. I am no lawyer but there yours, you took them. You might have to put their name on it! If you were an employed staff photographer, the pictures are the property of the company for which you worked and you need their permission to use them. You feel that you are not selling them, but in fact, you are using them to promote a business and that is, in reality, selling them regardless of how you look at it. Any photos that you took for your employer belong to your employer. Film or digital images too. |
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