Photo Ownership - legal questions

[Kenneth and Tracie Josephson]

brathke at juno.com wrote:

> 1.      If you took a photograph, you obviously have all the rights of the
> copyright owner--to reproduce, sell, publish, etc.  If you "bought the
> rights to it," what you are allowed to do with it will depend on which
> rights are spelled out in the agreement under which you bought it.  If
> it's not specified in the agreement how the photo is to be used, it is
> not generally safe to assume that you can do everything you want with it.
>  The best course of action is to discuss it with the copyright owner, or
> better yet, have it spelled out in the agreement.  Having purchased the
> rights to a photo does NOT give you the right to give permission to
> someone else to use it, on the web or otherwise.  It is the copyright
> owner's exclusive right to give permission to use the copyrighted photo.

My written agreement with Roberta's family states I have the right to copyright
and own outright all images (negatives) and all print where the negatives no
longer exist.

If I bought the negatives, I get any matching prints the family may find....ditto
for the negatives to match the prints I bought. When I donate the collection to
PTM, the Museum will get those rights with the images.

The only stipulation is that any published images cannot use Ms. Hill's first
name. I agreed to that and this information from Bob's attorney friend proves they
have that say so, even if they signed away their rights to earnings from Roberta's
artistry.

The family has asked me not to reveal Roberta's identity to eBay purchasers of her
work. The people who do know who she is generally honor the request to identify
her only as "R. Hill."

Incredibly, the family was going to donate the entire collection of 10,000 plus
TTC images to the HCRR. All the family wanted was a stated value donation receipt
for an income tax deduction. The Museum declined because someone there didn't like
the square format and the fact these are prints, not slides. The collection has
been selling well on eBay.

Ken J.