need help wording "License to Reproduce" form

I plan to start including a DVD of hi-res images with my photography packages

and need help in wording a "License to Reproduce" form. I want to retain the

copyright, but I'd like a simply worded form granting permission to reproduce

the images for personal use. I'd also like to add a short phrase on the DVD

itself showing that I took the photos, but permission is granted for the

client to print them. I want to be clear and to the point in hopes that my

clients will not have any problems having the images printed at a local lab.

For the DVD, would the following work?..."Copyright 2007. License to reproduce

granted by (business name) for personal use only." Or will that still confuse

the kid working at the local lab?

Ain't that the wedding licence? ;)

A few yesrs ago, I sent some pictures to be printed at samsclubphoto.com and was sent a copyright release form (because they thought a professional took the pictures - someone other than me). I copied that wording and put it on each CD I sell. Here's the wording it contains:

 

I do hereby declare and warrant that I, the copyright owner of the photos, have given permission and license to the customer to submit for processing or reproducing these photos. I hereby grant a nonexclusive license to ____________________________________ to reproduce these photos for personal use only, and I represent that I have a legal right to grant such a license.

 

(lines for my signature and date, and my address and phone number typed here too)

 

We just discuss this the other night on this forum, about what to say to prevent people from selling our prints for profit, so I used some of what people said (including William W. and others) added the following 'small print' to the bottom:

 

With this disc, you may manage and use the image files to produce prints for your family and friends, for personal use only within that group of people. You do not have permission to make copies for sale or for the purpose of circumventing sale of the images by the photographer, nor will you authorize any reproductions of the images for commercial use. You are personally responsible for communicating the limitations of this contract to any person who receives a copy of this disc.

 

(Thanks to William W. and the others whose wording I used for this).

Go here...

http://creativecommons.org/

 

This is the one I give to my clients...

http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/2.5/

 

This is the one I give to vendors when I provide them with promotional images...

http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/2.5/

Also.. I include a PDF letter signed by me on the disc that I provide - so that there's no

chance of losing it or altering it.

Hello !

 

I can not recall what exactly I wrote on the other thread, but thank you for the credit, and I am glad it was helpful.

 

WW

So the disc come to our shop and the customer says they want 16x20's; coffee mugs; T-shirts "for their personal use". Or the client just copies them to another disc with no boilerplate; or FTP's them or emails thems to our shop and one has no photographer contact info; just clients with cash who want prints. Releasing high res images into the wild is just like giving them away and losing about all control. Wedding photos have little value to other folks familys. <BR><BR>Are you "copyrighting" for controlling wedding reprints; or so the chaps dont sell the images to a bridal magazine?

Are you trying to control the brides mom who has the DVD of hi res images from making copies at a lab/printer; or selling them? or not having prints done that are too professional looking? So what the heck is really "personal use only"? the number of copies?; where they are displayed? <BR><BR>Most folks that have discs with terse boilerplate just reburn the images to another disc; and say Uncle Bob shot them. Thus the boilplate gets removed. "License to Reproduce" sounds like a B movie flick:); for personal use only! Its better not to be vague and trendy. Spelling out in simple words the limits with exactitude for ones images is better than goofy phrases.

This bothers me that some photographers are giving away their high res images, because this actually hurts ALL photographers. Now every bride and groom will soon expect to get a high res DVD of their wedding. I know I'm opening up a can of worms here but I really hate to see fellow photographers do this.

 

I'm not asking everyone to run their studios my way, just asking to really give this some thought to what you are doing by actually lowering the price level of wedding photography as well as the quality.

 

I had a client come over 2 weeks ago and they want to do the wedding here in LA and then fly me free to India for a second ceremony for just $1000. They wanted the DVD as well. I said no. As usual, I did my follow-up call yesterday and they found a photographer to do this. So if you figure it out this is $1000 for 2 weeks of work, which translates to $25,000 a year or $12 per hour, if you book a wedding every weekend. I won't get into the cost of gear.

 

If we all want to make a living in this PROFESSION lets talk about ways to make more money without giving away our heart and souls.

Thank you to those who answered my question. And LOL to Mark U for the marriage license comment...too funny! That one took me awhile...I didn't get it until I read Kelly's comment about the "B movie flick". I guess I'm getting slow in my old age and my mind hasn't been that far in the gutter since high school. ;-)

 

Anyway, I was gonna write this in my original post, but I didn't want it to turn into an epic. The purpose for the license would be to allow clients to make their own prints at whatever lab they choose...although I will STRONGLY recommend the lab I'd like to see them go to and explain to them how important a good lab is. I don't want to get phone calls from labs saying that they can't print until they have a signed release, so I want to have this taken care of ahead of time. I took senior portraits for my niece and put them on a CD without my logo or anything and the lab wouldn't print them because they "looked professional", even after my brother told them his sister took them. I was flattered, but annoyed that I had to take the time to send over a release for something I did for free. I would like to maintain the copyright to give myself the right to use the photos for promotional purposes. And I know that none of this really matters until I have to sue someone over selling my images to a stock footage company or avoid being sued by my client for using "their" images, but isn't that the whole reason for a contract? I can't control what people do, but I've got the signed contract stating what I've agreed to and if I need or decide to sue for something, I've got a contract to back me up.

 

Bob, you don't know how much I hate "turning to the bad side", but trust me, I'm not doing it for free. I'm tired of the post-wedding chaos of running back and forth to the lab and am ready to hand the images over to the client after the wedding to avoid all the extra work that's involved in making prints and designing albums. Here in the Southeast, the competition is already out there offering the hi-res images and, in this digital age, people are going to find a way to do their own prints no matter what. They're going to scan prints and make their own copies if they don't have the hi-res images. I used to guard my negatives with my life, but does it really matter? 10 years from now, people aren't going to look at their wedding pictures anyway (shhh...don't tell that to your clients). I'm charging as much as I used to for a days work, printed proofs, a 20 page wedding album and 2 parent albums and now all they get is the DVD of images to print themselves and my work is over. As a mother of 2, my time is precious and I'm fine with changing with the times, which is what I've found that I have to do to stay alive in this business and avoid sacrificing my time spent with my kids. You don't have to go broke by doing this though. You charge what you think you're worth and what you need to make a living. Every area of the country is different and I know LA is like a whole other world compared to the Southeast, so it's hard to compare the two.

 

Thanks again for everyone's input.

<em>"I used to guard my negatives with my life, but does it really matter? 10 years from now, people aren't going to look at their wedding pictures anyway (shhh...don't tell that to your clients). </em><p>

 

I'm sure glad I have my mother and father's wedding album especially because my Mom died a few years ago. Hopefully your clients who get DVD's actually get prints made and they can be viewed 30-40 years from now. I have some professionally printed photos in frames and a beautiful album that is in perfect shape which my children love to look at and someday - their children as well.

<p>

Me? I made the mistake of allowing my friend/wedding photographer shoot my wedding digitally and she gave me two DVD's with images that I've not yet (3 years later) turned into an album. Hopefully the quality on the DVD's has not suffered. I wish I had actual negatives as I'd not have to worry about them. This thread makes me realize how important it is and I better get my act together.

Mr Bob Bernardo wrote:

 

> This bothers me that some photographers are giving away their high res images, because this actually hurts ALL photographers. Now every bride and groom will soon expect to get a high res DVD of their wedding. I know I'm opening up a can of worms here but I really hate to see fellow photographers do this. < etc . . .

 

***

 

It is still our company policy that we do not allow the printing of our images to be beyond our control. Therefore, we do not sell negatives nor Hi Resolution DVDs or CDs.

 

In (commercial assignments) instances, where multiple use printing rights have been sold, (such as an image for letterhead, business card, brochure etc), and when the job has not been handled by an advertising or similar agent; we ask the client to place us in contact with the printing company, to whom we supply the necessary negatives positives or digital files. The printer signs a form outlining the use for which our property is to be employed.

 

In a vast market place there is a requirement for high quality, end prints, from a Wedding shoot. I acknowledge that there are some clients who after purchasing the digital files or negatives will make sure the prints will be high quality, obviously for example, if they were to send them to the lab we use and purchased the same product we purchase the quality would be the same.

 

Without hard evidence, but with experience, I guess that the majority of professional photographers, and the general public, would agree that, the vast majority of clients would not seek out professional printing and photofinishing services; many clients would not know who was good and who was mediocre.

 

There also would be a number of Wedding and Portrait clients that would not follow up friends and family members that might want prints from the event: that is another let us say `passionate` or `emotional` perspective.

 

There are many ways the customer and more importantly the prospective customer glances at our business. We are in the business of recording human emotions. We are in the business of capturing a point in time that affects and effects human emotions; emotions that cause people to laugh, cry, hope, try harder, buy things . . . Our work results in an image that moves people. I can make this as a statement of fact as I have studied and researched the social impact of the photographic image.

 

I am (again) now responsible for the images our company makes, I have over 30 years of credibility, and the principal before me founded the parent business in 1938.

 

Our policy is resolute: we will not allow the final image to be beyond our quality control.

 

Our final image is what our clients view.

 

Our final image is, by far the most blatant, obvious, repetitive and most forceful impact by which we are judged; it is what the public sees.

 

Our final image is what our potential client views.

 

The quality of our final image is too large a constituent of the product we produce, market, advertise and sell to allow it to be beyond our aegis.

 

At the sales interview, we have no difficulty in explaining our position and our reasons for our quality control to our clients; some prospective clients seek others to serve their needs, they request and are supplied a different product and that is their right so to do.

 

If those who view our work and ask our advice seek another product and are happy with that product; then we are happy for them. That is what a free market place is.

 

If customers are unhappy with what they purchase, that is only my concern if it is our product, (or if it were to be that we have had a part ownership of that product, which we do not allow).

 

On the other hand we have clients now, because they were unhappy with work elsewhere, or they viewed images taken by other professionals, which, in the final print, they considered not suitable to their needs.

 

Professional Photography is going through a transition. This transition is driven by many factors including but not limited to: technology; convergence; price of equipment; availability of information.

 

Wedding and Portrait businesses are perhaps in the most precarious of all the professional enclaves of the Photographic industry as the mode (most commonly occurring event) moves further away from the `Traditional`.

 

Twenty years ago there were a few Professionals who would `sell the negs` to the Bride and Groom. It appears that there are more now who offer this as a product, perhaps even the percentage is more; this trend is influenced by the factors previously mentioned and the social influences that have changed how we view Weddings. Overall Weddings are less formal, less traditional, more results or outcomes driven by the Bride and Groom.

 

I am not debating that these facts are either good or bad, but I postulate that this social movement where a Bride and Groom now approach their wedding differently to those past; combined with the availability of technology; the surge of computer literacy; the abundance of misinformation disguised as advice for what is needed for `your wedding`; and more specific `Bridal` advertising; are all driving Professional Wedding Photographers, both those seasoned and those new in the industry, to make decisions regarding what products to put on offer.

 

It is important to know what business one is in; what the product is one is selling; its worth; and a price structure for it.

 

I have articulated this point, at many forums, (photnet included); this topic formed the cornerstone of a recent keynote address to the industry.

 

My articulation of this statement, combined with my resolute stance on how we conduct our business in regard to what is for sale and what is not, is sometimes taken as an emotional argument from a tired old tart attempting to hold on to things past in a brave new world. It surely is not. Nor is it an attempt to convince those who have other paths to follow, it is my opinion only.

 

The product range our company offers, and the limitations regarding what we do not sell is based on: current market research; industry experience; and a business plan for further growth.

 

Before the counter argument cries emerge in unison, mostly from those newly baptized, I will mount some of them: `But you have 30 years in the industry. . . your business has economic inertia . . . you have old clients who recommend you . . . it is different for you I am just starting out . . . but for me it is different I am a one man/woman show and Acme photography down the road sell DVDs I have to too . . . and so it goes there are many adages from which a counter view might be made.

 

Please, I do not as previously mentioned, `want to open up a can of worms`.

 

Suffice to say over the past 7 years amid burgeoning technological growth, three of our younger photographers have left our business to go it alone.

 

All have marketed themselves in their own fashion, with their own product offer, and all have started from scratch (in a business sense). All are quite successful, making a very (above average) living, all shoot Weddings: none sell their negative or digital images.

 

Obviously one could say working in our company influenced them and we can not attribute their success solely to what product they offer. I would expect hard work, discipline, business acumen, a solid foundation in photographic theory at tertiary level, and hopefully experience as an Assistant Photographer with us helped too.

 

But my point is there are other Professionals who offer similar to what we offer, they are successful and they are not necessarily `ancient`. (I have been referred to in courser terms).

 

In respect of the comment made which I quoted above at the beginning:

 

Mr Bob Bernardo wrote:

 

> This bothers me that some photographers are giving away their high res images, because this actually hurts ALL photographers. Now every bride and groom will soon expect to get a high res DVD of their wedding. I know I'm opening up a can of worms here but I really hate to see fellow photographers do this. < etc . . .

 

If I were to make comment based purely from a cut-throat business competition perspective, to ensure even greater success for our company, I would encourage all professionals to sell as many digital Wedding files as they could.

 

Just some food for thought.

 

Regards,

WW

 

Anita, I have to apologize. You asked for a valid question and I went off on another subject that didn't pertain to your question. For that I apologize.

 

By the way there are websites that will post your images and you don't have to run to the lab. They bill, print, send the images to the client. Then they send you money, so you really don't have to do any lab running around at all. Hope this helps.