I have been really loving my GF since I got it almost a year ago!!! I have finally run across a scenario that I don’t quite know what to do with.
I have been commissioned by a local school to do some photo engraving for their library. They would like some 11x14s of a dozen or so authors. During our conversation, I was thinking of authors like Dickens, Shakespeare, etc. They sent me a link to an image of one of the authors, turns out the link is from an online blog.
My question is, is it legal to just go ahead and produce a product from the school provided link? Do I assume permission has been given from the blog? or the author? or the photographer who took the photo? Do I ask for proof of written permission from the school for all the images they are supplying? Do I, personally, get permission for all the images?
The only images I have done photo engraves for are for customers that have been obviously personally taken photos, not from a professional photographer.
Ask for permission. It should be easy to email the author if they have a blog. I imagine most authors should be pretty ok with being featured at a library, as should their publishers. But always ask; you don’t want to get yourself or the school/library into any trouble.
Thank you for the input. I assumed permission would have to be given. I will leave it up to the school to obtain the permission. I will also request that they send the proof of permission along with the images when they send them over.
David, The previous responses are correct. I’m a professional photographer that has worked across a broad spectrum of clients from notable pro athletes to celebrities to the president. You always should get or confirm permission first. Typically for a project like the one you’ve described, it should be quite easy and only take a couple emails or calls.
As an example, I wanted to make “Bernie Mitten” buttons and magnets and sell them. I anticipated making abou $100 total off of them. I asked the artist if I could use his drawing and he said yes. But, I also knew that I needed to ask the photographer who took the original photo the drawing was based on. I asked and he referred me to Getty Images, who was the rightsholder. I went to them, and they wanted hundreds of dollars for a limited run of a certain size for a year. I sent them a personal email asking if they had any other packages available, because I would never make that much in total, and they told me that I first had to actually get Bernie Sanders’ permission to use his likeness in the first place, and if I did that, then they would discuss pricing with me.
So, I now have about 80 Bernie lapel pins that I can’t really do anything with. Live and learn.
I’m not sure that’s the case. He’s a public figure in a public place. There’s a different requirement for that. Otherwise Getty needs to have his permission to sell the photo (as would the original photographer). It’s different than typical scenarios where you need a Model Release.
Might be fun to ask Getty for a copy of their permission from Bernie to be selling his likeness
they sell his likeness under very specific license. in particular, editorial license. as a public figure, that’s allowable. but selling objects with bernie’s image on them as opposed to using the image for editorial purposes requires a different kind of permission.
