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6 Years Ago
Hello to All,
Got an email, which I get maybe once a year from people, and usually cars and settled either by removing the car image or my explaining of what the general rules are for taking photos, of private homes,cars,boats,etc., from or in a PUBLIC space.
Well the other day, received this and was surprised at first!
"Dear Mr Franco,
you seen to have a number of images and paintings for sale, which where taken off our private property. We have an agreement with local artists that any images taken from our hotel will have to be credited to "XXXXXXX" and a digital copy must be provided to us with full rights.
I'm sorry to have to contact you regarding this but we have too many people profiting off pictures taken on our private property without permission. I hope to hear from you soon. I will advise that if we do not hear from you we will be forced to contact our lawyer and Fine Art America to advice them of the laws that have been broken. But I will say this is not action we would want to take, as you have truly captured the marina, and may not have been aware that you had entered private property.
And my reply:
Hello! Glad you like the images and we have stayed in that motel many times, over the years, in years past. We always stayed upstairs in order to take sunset photos.
That night I arrived, not sure what time, but no cars in the parking lot and no signs saying closed. I walked to the back and was met by a young man, who I assumed to be the night watchman. He asked what was I doing and told him that I was just taking photos of this sunset, since we had stayed here many years before. He said that was fine, but I was not allowed on the docks, which I didn't need to be on to get my shots. Was there maybe 10 minutes and left.
I am more than happy to give your hotel photo credits, but as I mentioned at that time, the hotel seemed to be shut down for repairs or renovation. Since I wasn't aware of any "agreement", I wouldn't know about it and the guard didn't mention it either. I would be happy to discuss possible usage of a couple of my images, for Internet only use and anything beyond that, we can discuss the needs you may have.
I am a professional photographer and have been for almost 40 years now and enjoy doing this. There were no signs or warnings about being on your property and if there had been, would not have used that spot.
The "paintings" are just photos that I've used Photoshop to look like paintings. I'm an Architectural Photographer too, so if you need any work done, let me know.
Rich Franco
and then his reply:
Hi rich,
Thank you for taking the time to email back.
You will be glad to hear that we will be re-opening in the next 2 months. The young man you met is one of the boaters in the marina. If we could get 2 images of the marina that would be great.
Regards
And then my reply:
Thank you and if YOU can just choose which images you would like, let me know. I'll send them sized for Internet usage and would love to have a photo credit, Rich Franco Photography, if possible.
Let me know if you would need a photographer for any new room shots. We have friends in town now and stay with them, so that would make it easy. A nice shot from the bridge, back towards the new hotel would be nice!
Rich
Then a few emails back and forth, wanting to see some of my Resort stuff and then finally asking for a price. What I find in cases like this, is if that party making the initial contact, seems reasonable, which this man certainly is, good can come out of the conversation. The first reaction for many, is to run and remove images and hope that satisfies the owner/corporation. My initial reaction, is to first see if there is wiggle room that will satisfy both of us. And I also try and do some marketing, which in this case, he will have access to any of these images, for Internet use only and I'll end up getting a new client!
So, all in all, a very good result to what could have been a bit of a bother! Again, lucky that this person was reasonable and not "all lawyered up"!
Hope this story helps. And I have made a couple of nice sales through FAA and also locally, of these images!
Rich
Reply Order
6 Years Ago
Yeah, Richard....this is very cool. Funny how things work out sometimes if we make ourselves willing to take a leap. Thank you for posting this.
6 Years Ago
Thanks! Just hope that other artists when they encounter stuff like this, know there are other options, than just removing artwork from a site.
Rich
6 Years Ago
Great story and excellent outcome, Rich ... and truly wise advice. Always look for the wiggle room ... negotiation can be an option!!!
6 Years Ago
Lois,
yes, almost ALL "problems" have solutions that benefit both parties....
Love your new stuff I'm seeing in Instagram.....
Rich
6 Years Ago
Interesting....
They are claiming some sort of legal rights to images of other people's property (cars) just because they are parked on their property?
I can see them claiming rights to the property they themselves own and may have "created"... but cars in the parking lot?
And even a bigger stretch I would think would be rights to the sunset pics taken from their property?
I think they may have you on trespassing and even that is a stretch!
But you sure handled it well! Good job and you got money out of them! You are my new hero!! lol
It would be an interesting case to see go before a judge. I am certainly no lawyer, but my guess is this case would go nowhere fast in front of a judge and fair even worse before a jury.
Can you share the name of the hotel? I am tempted to go take a bunch of pics just to test them. Or to make sure I avoid them. Not sure whcih.
Carlin Blahnik CarlinArtWatercolor
6 Years Ago
Awesome job, keeping cool and making sales! Way to go! Thank you for sharing :)
6 Years Ago
i wonder how people find these things. and this is a view, i don't think anyone can claim ownership of a view. as of late on another site, the port authority is claiming copyright on the view of the NY skyline that has either the world trade towers or freedom tower in it. they have them remove the work. fought in court, they would totally lose.
---Mike Savad
http://www.MikeSavad.com
6 Years Ago
Floyd,
No I will NOT give you the name!!! LOL!
Mike, yes, in most cases, the artist will win, but you need to pick your fights and in my case here, not worth it.....
This particular image or images can really only be taken from one location, so everyone that has seen these images, knows where the artist was standing, that was the truth and I told the truth. As I mentioned, I felt I was dealing with a reasonable person and things worked out. My reason to post this, was that many here and those that are maybe starting out in photography, usually don't know that everything is negotiable. First reaction is generally remove the offending images, but in most cases, not needed.
A few years ago, I had taken a photo of a 1938 Truck, at a car show, public car show and when I posted it, received an email telling me to take it down, it was his truck and private property. I returned the email and explained about this and that, I had the rights to do this,blah,blah,blah and he then said he would contact his attorney, which he has done in the past. This case, these 2 images were ok, nothing special and I had other 1938 trucks, so I removed his truck from FAA and my other site. A few months later, ran into another photographer that I see at the same shows and we were gabbing about how nice car people are and he brought up this one guy that had a 1938 truck, that had gone and had his attorney write a letter, telling this photographer to remove the truck from his site! I shared my story and of course, it was the same guy. So it doesn't always work out, but in most cases it will.
Rich
