Hi All,

 Yep on needing the releases but I have learned recently that there are quite a number of RM buyers buying editorial and using it in commercial applications. They seem not o concerned with the legal situation. I was surprised to here this but the source is as reliable as they come so Editorial at the big agencies can have more legs than people give it credit for. I never realized until recently.

Take care,
Jonathan

Hi All,

 Yep on needing the releases but I have learned recently that there are quite a number of RM buyers buying editorial and using it in commercial applications. They seem not o concerned with the legal situation. I was surprised to here this but the source is as reliable as they come so Editorial at the big agencies can have more legs than people give it credit for. I never realized until recently.

Take care,
Jonathan

i'm just as surprised as you. a bigwig at a privately owned but fairly well known co. had approached me for some photos i took for editorial. he wanted it for commercial use but i was bowled over when he wasn't at all concerned about the lack of model releases. in fact, he had already cleared a really well known trademark all on his own. for a newbie like me, i was really at a loss as to how to write a rm licence for this.

You talk like it's a good thing to use content against the license definition.

dan heller gave the perfect analysis of the situation for photographers. from a legal point of view, it's really not up to the photographer to provide any releases. it's really up to the end user to obtain it for their own protection. all a photographer is responsible for is to make it clear whether he has or hasn't a release and it's up to the end user decide how to use the photograph. dan heller explains it more in depth. http://www.danheller.com/model-release.html

of course, from a stock agency's point of view, it may be harder to sell photographs...

dan heller gave the perfect analysis of the situation for photographers. from a legal point of view, it's really not up to the photographer to provide any releases. it's really up to the end user to obtain it for their own protection. all a photographer is responsible for is to make it clear whether he has or hasn't a release and it's up to the end user decide how to use the photograph. dan heller explains it more in depth. http://www.danheller.com/model-release.html

Thanks for that link!  I was wanting to reference that article awhile back and could not for the life of me remember where to find it.