Selling digital file for remote printing

[stefanovandelli]

I have been approached by someone in the US (I am UK based) requesting a price

for a very high res file of one of my photos to be printed on a set of blinds.

 

Whilst I wouldn't mind having the blinds printed and sold by me I am quite

reluctant to send a high res file across the ocean for someone's private

printing.

 

What is your opinion?

 

Thanks for your help.

[david.wagle]

Make sure you have a lawyer draft up the contract and make sure that rights and usages for the image are clearly defined.

[buckry]

Tell the customer you want to do all of the dealing with the printer, that way the image is never in their posession, only yours and the company that prints the blinds. Then you can have the blinds shipped to you for your final approval, and they can pay you for the finished product.

[stefanovandelli]

Ryan that's exactly what I would do if I were in the same country as the buyer.

[stephanie_maus]

Why couldn't you work with the company producing the blinds to send them the file directly, but still have the finished product sent to the customer so that it doesn't have to be shipped international? The company producing the blinds should be sensitive to copyright issues and not release the file to the customer receiving the blinds. You could always have them sign a contract if you were concerned about their integrity. You can charge your customer your fee for the rights to the image before you send the file out for production and they can pay for the blinds directly since they found the company that produces the blinds and are already aware of the cost for the product. The blind company might have an ftp server for you to upload the file and not have to incur the cost of shipping a CD.

[david_henderson]

If the person contacting you had approached a library he'd end up quickly and easily with a large digital file that he could in essence do what he wanted with subject to the contract with the Library which might of course be on a Royalty Free basis. The point I'm making is that it isn't really appropriate to be too precious and do things like trying to prevent your customer from having access to the file. Its a photograph, not the crown jewels, and if you get too restrictive or reluctant about what you are prepared to do and come across as if you're doing your customer a real favour then you might find that he wanders off in the direction of one of the countless libraries or photographers who will give him what he wants without treating him as a potential criminal. The idea that you should in essence take control over the production of someone else's product to protect your image is particularly unrealistic.

 

If I were you I'd be talking to the client about what rights he wants to obtain. Purpose, territory, timescale, degree of exclusivity required and so on. Then turn this into a contract which also specifies the deliverable and how/when you want to be paid. Subject to agreement of contract, send the guy the file he wants. Don't treat him from the outset as someone who will screw you or breach the agreement. He's a customer. If he can't get a file from you he can get it easily enough from someone else. Unless you happen to have something absolutely unique here, customers are rarer than photographs.

[Jim_Tardio]

Great answer, David...my feelings exactly. Good & even great photos are a dime a dozen. It's to your own advantage to attempt to accommodate the folks that are interested in yours.

[robert_k1]

Stefano's concern is indeed valid. Currently, recipients of high resolution files (online service bureaus, call for entry curators, clients, etc.) are not going out of their way to offer a statement that they will protect you files. It is then up to us, the owners of the files, to come up with the means to protect them.

 

When I HAVE to send a high resolution file, I would define the terms of use in detail to the recipients, ask them to propagate the same terms if they should send the file to someone else, and to delete the file from their computers after the terms of use is completed.

 

Now, wouldn't it be nice if the recipients could make such statements on their own to begin with? It will set them apart.