Makes sense to me. I'm no lawyer either.
Thinking along these lines though, TV stations routinely shoot footage on
street corners, at public events., etc., of persons who have not given
explicit signed consent to be photographed. Nor have they given consent for
the footage to be aired. That footage is shown on television news.
Stepping out on a limb... Somewhat implicit in everything a news
organization (at least here in the US) does is the idea that it will attract
advertisers and readership/viewership, hence generate income. I don't see
the difference in showing a picture on the air vs. on a T-shirt.
Tom C.
From: Godfrey DiGiorgi <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Reply-To: [email protected]
To: [email protected]
Subject: Re: copyrights
Date: Mon, 3 Apr 2006 12:22:18 -0700
I am not a copyright lawyer.
This position was stated at a recent exhibition sponsored by the Bay Area
Press Photographers Association... one of their more successful local
photographers who has sold such work broadly to both national and
international magazine publications for editorial use gave this guideline
for when releases are necessary in his experience:
'Photos of people taken in public places where the "expectation of
privacy" is not assumed do not require releases if used for editorial
publication. There's a lot of qualitative assessment in that statement,
but unless the photo is being printed as advertising for some brand name
product or event, it would be considered an editorial photograph just like
a print I sell out of my gallery listing. I don't have releases for such
work, and the act of obtaining releases would likely make it impossible
for the work to be done in the first place.
Work that is to be used in promoting events and/or products, where the
significance of the person in the photo is linked to the value/ use of the
advertisement and desirability to a purchaser of the promoted item, always
requires a release.'
If the T-shirt is not being used as an advertisement for some product or
event, I think it would fall under the notion of editorial use and
therefore not require a release unless it were a photo made under private
or exceptional circumstances that assume an expectation of privacy.
Godfrey
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