![\"bald](\"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/01\/bald-eagle-4372b-new-copyright-ron-dudley.jpg\")
<\/a><\/p>\n1\/1250, f\/7.1, ISO 500, Canon 7D, 500 f\/4, 1.4 tc, not baited, set up or called in (though the\u00a0carp was killed by refuge managers)<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\nThis is the image in question and it’s one of my favorites – a Bald Eagle eating a fish in midair while other birds (out of frame to the left) were chasing it.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
There were\u00a0two\u00a0components to our informal agreement, negotiated by email:<\/p>\n
\n- State Parks would have “one time use” of my Bald Eagle\u00a0image #4372\u00a0for their interpretive panel at the new nature center<\/li>\n
- For such use they would pay me my requested fee<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
That was it – there were no other conditions agreed to or requested\u00a0by either party.\u00a0\u00a0 As per usual in these situations I expected to be sent a contract that reflected our agreement.\u00a0\u00a0I received the contract but what it reflected was something very different.\u00a0 When I read it, three paragraphs (below)\u00a0in the Copyright License Agreement literally made my jaw drop:<\/p>\n
\n- “I understand that the Department wants to use and reuse the Material, as the Department deems appropriate.”<\/li>\n
- “I hereby grant the Department an unrestricted, fully paid up, world-wide, irrevocable, perpetual license to use, reproduce, distribute, create derivative works, publicly display and perform the Material, in whole or in part, in any manner, for any purpose and in any medium now known or hereinafter invented.\u00a0 This right includes, but is not limited to, the right to copy, publish, distribute, alter and publicly display the Material for education, interpretation, advertising and other purposes consistent with the mission of the Department.”<\/li>\n
- “I understand that I will not receive any money for this license agreement or for any use described above.\u00a0 I understand that I will retain the copyrights to the\u00a0Material, but hereby grant an unrestricted license to the Department.”<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
<\/p>\n
In a flash I was angry.\u00a0 I take my photography very seriously,\u00a0my images mean a lot to me and\u00a0I despise being duped or taken advantage of.\u00a0 I let myself cool down (a little)\u00a0and then fired off the following email.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\u201cMary,<\/em><\/p>\nYour request for my image was for a \u201cone time use\u201d by State Parks for the interpretive panels at xxx Recreation Area. I agreed to that use for a fee of $xxx.<\/em><\/p>\nThe contract you sent me stipulates the following:<\/em><\/p>\n* that I will \u201cnot receive any money\u201d for the image<\/em>
\n * that you have the right to alter my image<\/em>
\n * that you have the right to create \u201cderivative works\u201dfrom my image<\/em>
\n * that you have the right to use my image in any medium you like<\/em>
\n * that you have the right to use my image virtually any way you like, whenever you like, forever<\/em><\/p>\nThat\u2019s just not going to happen. Not for $xxx or for 10 times that much.<\/em><\/p>\nI don\u2019t know how the agreement you and I reached became altered to the bizarre terms stipulated here but I will not sign this contract.<\/em><\/p>\nSorry,<\/em>
\n Ron\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n <\/p>\n
I thought Mary responded appropriately.\u00a0 She said that she had questioned this contract in the past\u00a0more than once with State Parks and that some other photographers\u00a0had reacted in the same way that I did (but despite that, apparently State Parks had been insistent on using this contract for some time and hadn’t yielded).\u00a0 She told me that she would find a resolution and she did.\u00a0 A few days later Mary sent me\u00a0a different and much more palatable agreement, the germane portions of which I’ve listed below:<\/p>\n
\n- \n
Title of image<\/strong>: bald eagle eating mid-air<\/div>\n<\/li>\n- \n
Description of use<\/strong>: nonexclusive, one-time, one-format use at the recreation area<\/div>\n<\/li>\n- \n
Duration of use<\/strong>: indefinite.\u00a0 May be reproduced over the lifetime of the display<\/div>\n<\/li>\n- \n
Credit line to read<\/strong>: Copyright \u00a9\u00a0Ron Dudley<\/div>\n<\/li>\n- \n
Destination of image<\/strong>: interpretive panel<\/div>\n<\/li>\n- \n
License fee<\/strong>: $xxx<\/div>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n <\/p>\n
I signed the contract, sent my image to Mary and received my fee.\u00a0 Mary and the design group were never an issue with me.\u00a0 She was professional, forthright, efficient and a delight to work with.\u00a0\u00a0I’d do so again in a heartbeat.\u00a0 My\u00a0problem was with the original\u00a0State Parks contract.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
So, what’s my point with all this?\u00a0 My point is that photographers (and other artists) need not roll over and play dead when publishers and\u00a0other organizations or individuals\u00a0attempt to\u00a0hold them hostage with outrageous contract stipulations.\u00a0 High end consumers of photography (and other art) know quality and they generally know what product best fills their need.\u00a0 But they’re also\u00a0highly\u00a0aware that many artists are desperate for “exposure” and are willing\u00a0to accept almost any terms offered just to get their work “published”.\u00a0 I most definitely am not.<\/p>\n
Sure,\u00a0I could have lost the sale (and the “exposure”)\u00a0by refusing to sign the original contract\u00a0but these folks knew what they wanted\u00a0and when I made\u00a0it clear that I would not\u00a0accept their one-sided\u00a0terms they immediately became more reasonable.\u00a0 It was a chance I was willing to take and I’d do it again, even if I knew up front\u00a0that doing so would cause the deal to fall through.<\/p>\n
Just sayin’…<\/p>\n
Ron<\/p>\n
Note:\u00a0 I apologize to my regular readers for the rant.\u00a0 I’ll be back to more normal fare tomorrow…<\/em><\/p>\n <\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
A recent experience taught me that photographers (and other artists) don’t necessarily have to accept outrageous contract stipulations from “publishers” or lose the deal. There’s another page in that playbook.<\/p>\n
Continue reading<\/span><\/i><\/a> <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":21184,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[355,6,334,16],"tags":[43,1113,1820,1822,1823,400,1818,1824,1819,1821,1817],"class_list":["post-21176","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-bald-eagles","category-bird-photography-methods","category-birds","category-photography-ethics","tag-bald-eagle","tag-copyright","tag-copyright-license-agreement","tag-derivitave-works","tag-exclusive-use","tag-haliaeetus-leucocephalus","tag-image-contracts","tag-nonexclusive-use","tag-one-time-use","tag-perpetual-license","tag-photo-contracts"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/01\/bald-eagle-4372b-new-copyright-ron-dudley.jpg","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p1zzJh-5vy","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21176","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=21176"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21176\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/21184"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=21176"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=21176"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=21176"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}