copyright and weddings

[RustyPaperclip]

First time I have posted on aibu and I'm aware it might not seem an interesting subject.

I got married last year and I was aware that a friend wanted to move into a particular wedding related business. I knew she needed experience and so asked her if she wanted to provide this service (I offered her money but she refused as she wanted experience but I suggested it could be in lieu of a wedding present and also bought her thank you gifts).

She asked me for a testimonial for her new website, which I supplied, however I have just seen that she has uploaded multiple pictures of myself and others from our wedding. I am annoyed that she didn't ask me if it was ok and also she has used pictures taken by our professional photographer so it is copyright infringement. If she had the photographer's permission and had asked me I would certainly have agreed, but I am not comfortable with her using images my wedding otherwise. My dh thinks I am overreacting but (without going into too much detail) I deal with copyright issues everyday in my job and also want to make her aware that she could be in trouble in the future.

Aibu to say something to her?

My understanding, however I might be wrong (I have been only married the once so never paid a great deal of attention apart in passing glance to guidance) is that the photographer retains copyright with the understanding that copies will commonly be made for personal distribution. I am not sure about personal contracts, I believe our photographer still held the copyright in agreement with the act

Of course she shouldn't,. Also some photographers trawl the internet looking for their photos - software tools make this easy. They then send an invoice to the infringer so she could be in for a big bill.

Most photographers of weddings keep the copyright. I bought from ours a set of physical prints from my daughter's wedding - you pay extra fees for each reproduction.

As for the issue of had she obtained permission from the photographer could she use the peopel's image - no. There is a section in the 1988 Act which is about the right of privacy to a commissioned photograph that says that even though the photographer owns the photo people cannot use the photos without the happy couple's consent.

So you are perfectly right and it's important people comply with the law for the sake of all of us.

YANBU. Check your agreement with the photographer. If the photographer owns the copyright, tell her you're not happy with the images being made public in this way and you thought she should know what has happened. If you have bought the copyright as part of the package, you could contact the ISP of the website, and Facebook, to request that they are taken down.

So if she did the flowers/cake/dresses/makeup/catering whatever, she has now got professional photos of same on her website, for free? With no credit to the photographer?

Not on, legally or morally.

I don't want specify what she did, but it was a mutually beneficial arrangement and she used the photos of a professional photographer on her website. We checked with our photographer that it was ok to distribute our wedding photos with friends and family for personal use, but this friend has used them for her own professional website. As far as I know, she did not ask the permission of our photographer

I agree that she should (morally) have asked, and it was super cheeky of her not to...unfortunately though, there's not a lot the subjects of the photos can do.

Most photographers who retain copyright are happy to have their work used for personal purposes, but not usually for commercial dealings. If you would like to neatly resolve this, you could just drop the photographer an email explaining the situation and sit back while they deal with it?

No need to apologise to me btw

Surely the key thing is that if this is her business, she needs to understand the copyright laws around wedding photographs to ensure that she is operating legally when using other people's photographs to promote her business.

The new average bear.... Usually you buy a license to USE the photos. Very very rarely would you buy the copyright.

Agreed - but if OP is the one to point it out to her, that will be awkward and likely be the end of the friendship, which would be a shame.

If the photographer does it, the point will still get across in a professional context and OP's friendship is preserved.

Bespoke, I really appreciate your advice. Unfortunately I did go to my friend as I rather (probably) naively thought that it would be better for me to point it out rather than have a potential difficult issue on her hands. I wish I had waited for your advice, because as predicted she has taken it badly. I stupidly thought that would be better than angry email from a photographer/client

I have a feeling it's the cake for some reason. Hope you get it all sorted.

A good friend would surely apologise and take the photos down straight away.

No, not a cake. I was annoyed that the photos were being used, but more than that I was trying to help her. That seems to have backfired spectacularly! I've just left it by saying best of luck with the new business and it is now up to her to choose whether she takes my advice.

Most businesses supplying services to a wedding (cake / flowers / dress / food / venue / etc.) will have in their contract the right to take photos and use them for promotion...

copyright of a photo sits by default with the photographer, unless they are employed e.g. by a press agency etc. and can be contractually assigned to someone comissioning the photos, but generally for a wedding would sit with the photographer.

The photographer then provides a release to allow the wedding couple to use photos in the way agreed (this can have limitations e.g. on social media / image size online / etc.)

the other issue referred to above is about model releases - a photo can't be used commercially with people in it unless there is a model release from each person agreeing that use, or it is not required (news / not a significant part of the image - e.g. crowd scene / etc.) non-commercial use is almost unrestricted, the only issue being where use of the photo suggests association between the model and something they might not agree with (e.g. political / religious / etc.)

So...

• she needs to sort out her contract and take her own photos
• she can't use the photographer's photos without permission and model release from the photographer

The thing is, if you would have said yes anyway, why does it matter? It is upto the photographer to chase her about infringing on his rights. I wouldn't have gotten involved beyond maybe letting her know that the photographer owns the rights. The legalities of how she runs her business is for her to worry about.

In saying to her that she should have asked your permission (that you would have given anyway), you do come over a bit precious imo. I think I would have only raised this if I had a personal reason not to want my pics on the internet.

Although I do agree it would have been polite to ask you.

I had a colleague in a non-wedding-photography career do my pics as one of his first, as he was planning to do this as a second job.

A few months later he showed me his website. On the homepage was a huge pic of me. I had no idea there would be. When I commented on it, he told me that he put this pic in a public exhibition which was ending the next day. So I'd have no chance to even consider going to see it.

I was a bit surprised but mainly disappointed he hadn't mentioned any of this. Copyright didn't really bother me - I mean, who is this bothered about pics of people they don't know?

I am not sure what is being precious about wanting to be asked if I mind multiple images of my wedding being used to promote her services. I do agree that if it wasn't for my job then perhaps I would not be quite so annoyed, however I believe that I would still be upset at the presumption that it was ok. I have told her that I am incredibly thankful for her help, just suggested that she does need to be careful about permissions. Yes, I am upset but I also wanted to help my friend.