Red Bull photo agreement

[fastshutter]

I just got my email from red bull on my race creds for the up coming ATL nascar race. I was wondering if any of

you guys have any experience with an photo agreement like this. I think I have a basic idea what this means but

if any body could spell this out for me in laymens terms. here is the text from the email they sent me. Is this

pretty much standard?

 

Thanks

Kenny

 

 

 

AGREEMENT ON THE ASSIGNMENT OF RIGHTS

FROM PHOTOGRAPHER TO RED BULL

Concluded between

Red Bull GmbH (“RB GmBH”)

Red Bull North America, Inc (“RBNA”)

Am Brunnen 1

1740 Stewart Street

5330 Fuschl am See

Santa Monica, CA 90404

Austria

USA

- Hereinafter collectively called "Red Bull" -

and

Ken Martin

Martin Photography

_______________________

_______________________

_______________________

- Hereinafter called "Photographer" -

PREAMBLE

The Photographer shall receive general instructions from Red Bull for their performance of the

photo shoots. This Agreement regulates the exploitation rights under copyright law in connection

with said photo shootings performed by the Photographer.

SUBJECT

This Agreement shall apply to

- all photographs and other documents that the Photographer has produced or will produce by

order of Red Bull, hereinafter collectively referred to as “Photographs” (which term shall

include all video, still, graphics, digital images or images in any media or form).

USAGE RIGHTS

1) The Photographer and Red Bull hereby agree that for the purpose of the Agreement, the

Photographs shall be a work-made-for-hire and the sole property of Red Bull. To the extent any

rights hereunder are deemed not a work-made-for-hire, then Photographer hereby assigns all

rights and interests to Red Bull.

Red Bull has obtained and shall obtain all rights of whatever legal nature under current or future

laws (under Austrian, a foreign and/or international jurisdiction) to all Photographs provided by

and to be provided in the course of past, present or future contractual relationships by

Photographer, in particular all property and intellectual property rights. These rights are granted

exclusively and may therefore not be exercised by others, not even by the Photographer himself.

All parties acknowledge that Red Bull owns the exclusive, perpetual, world-wide right to use the

Photographs without restriction in terms of time, subject-matter and place, in particular for any

Page 2

commercial and/or non-commercial exploitation, publication, reproduction, distribution,

preparation of derivative works, further development, broadcasting, immaterial display, in whole

and in part, exploitation on film (including further exploitation on audiovisual media), on

audiovisual media, by radio, television and cable networks, on the Internet and in any other

media currently known and any other potential present or future use (whether or not already

known on the date hereof), for example also on the internet or in other new media. Red Bull may

in particular also transfer these rights in whole or in part to third parties, grant sublicenses and

rights and/or permits to exercise the work, and it may exercise these rights itself or through third

parties. Furthermore Red Bull is entitled to exercise the rights designated in § 20 (designation of

the copyright owner) and § 21 Section 1 (copyright protection of the work) of the UrhG

(Austrian Copyright Act). Therefore the name of the Photographer may not to be mentioned. Red

Bull is not obliged to exercise these rights.

Red Bull agrees to identify the Photographer on the Photographs with the following text:

"Photo: Ken Martin / Red Bull Photofiles" until cancelled. Red Bull reserves the right in its sole

discretion to amend or cancel the text at any time without any cause.

The provisions of § 29 UrhG (early termination of the contract) are hereby suspended, insofar as

this is legally permissible.

2) Red Bull understands, that at this time Photographer wishes to use the Photographs for

editorial purpose and hereby grants permission for editorial usage until such time as Red Bull in

its sole discretion determines this permission is revoked. The Photographer is obliged to provide

a monthly up-to-date list of individuals/companies to whom the Photographs were distributed for

editorial purposes. Insofar as the Photographer wishes to use the Photographs in any other form,

he must first obtain the written consent of Red Bull. Any use of these Photographs must not

interfere with Red Bull's interests.

3) The rights granted in this Agreement are fully compensated with the lump-sum paid to

Photographer by Red Bull for the performance of the photo-shootings. No further payments or

other consideration are contemplated in this Agreement.

4) The Photographer hereby represents and warrants that he holds exclusively all rights

necessary for the proper performance of the present Agreement, with particular reference to

Paragraph 1). The Photographer warrants that he has not assigned to any person the rights

assigned by the present Agreement and, furthermore, that he is not restrained by any other ties

from performing the present Agreement.

5) The Photographer may produce duplicates or scans at his/her own expense.

6) The terms of this Exhibit shall be governed by the law of Austria. The venue for all disputes

arising out of or in connection with the present Agreement shall be the court in Vienna – Inner

City that has substantive jurisdiction.

 

 

 

 

[ellis_vener_photography]

It is pretty much a buttoned down work-for-hire contract. It is written very well, at least to my non-lawyerly eyes.

 

In short, by agreeing up front to these terms of employment, they will forever own (with one exception -- the editorial clause ) 100% of the rights to all of photos you shoot during the period you are employed and in exchange they will pay you whatever rate you have mutually agreed to.

 

"The Photographer is obliged to provide a monthly up-to-date list of individuals/companies to whom the Photographs were distributed for editorial purposes."

 

That seems a little onerous but are you willing to indefinitely keep track of what publications you distribute the photos to and keep the Red Bull informed on a perpetual monthly basis?

 

 

 

If you are in a strong enough bargaining position to negotiate the terms then you might want to try and do so.

 

If you don't like the terms they want you to labor under for the financial remuneration and payment terms you've mutually agreed to, politely decline the work and go on to the next client

[geoffs1]

I agree with Ellis.

 

IMO, the mechanism RB has setup to allow you to use the photos outside the "work for hire" contract is very interesting. I assume it's mostly geared toward someone shooting for a small number of outlets, so the record-keeping wouldn't be too extensive.

[daverhaas]

First question - Are you shooting the race for Red Bull? or are they a major sponsor that is getting you a press credential?

 

If it is the latter, then I assume they are paying you nothing for this work, but they retain / own all copyrights except for editorial (assuming paper / web / magazine use) and you've got to report to them on a monthly basis for a period of time all uses.

 

The agreement itself looks okay, except for the part about copyright being Austrian and the court city of VIenna - I'd ask if they have a US office / city - assuming that you are referring to the race in Atlanta GA and you live and work in the US.

 

Dave

[fastshutter]

David, Red bull racing is getting me the creds to get in and shot the whole weekend, I am shooting for them. And your right I am not being paid for the job. Kind of a trade off from what I understand. I'm going to be in touch with them on wensday and should find out more.

[joshroot]

<i>"Kind of a trade off from what I understand."</i>

<p>

As a NASCAR fan, I understand the lure of getting the press credentials to see the race. However, no professional photographer would ever consider getting press access as "payment" of any sort. If I were "shooting for them" getting me into the race would go without saying. Press credentials are not a payment.

<p>

I have not dealt with the NASCAR world as a press shooter. But I dealt with plenty of situations like this in the extreme sports world. Same sort of deal.

<p>

And for those who were asking, Red Bull is a sponsor of a NASCAR 2 car team (though they have tried to qualify a third car in a couple of races). They are not "the" race sponsor for this event, The Pep Boys Auto 500 at the Atlanta Speedway. And in fact, I'm pretty sure that Red Bull doesn't sponsor any of the races themselves.

[daverhaas]

Josh - Excellent point - Payment needs to be in coin of the realm. And yes, as a NASCAR fan that would be tempting, but spending 2 days shooting and not getting paid doesn't pay the bills.

 

Ken - Not sure if you have a market for the photos that would qualify as "editorial" and the agreement (at least the way I read it) would prohibit you from selling the photos from your site to a NASCAR rube like me. So you'd end up with a lot of photos and no real market - potentially. Red Bull may use some for their site - it looks like they have a blogger or two that goes to the races, but that assumes that their cars make the grade and there's some good shots of them.

 

Now if you were planning on going to the race anyway... it's a different story ;-)

 

Dave