Wedding Picture Help!!!!

My husband and I got married last year. When we received our pictures, our wedding photographer, whom was a friend, gave us multiple CDs with our wedding photos on it. The pictures contained no watermarks, therefore we thought we could print pictures at our own discretion. We only printed a few pictures for our wall and that is it. We didn't post them or give them to other people. Recently, he has become upset with us over another personal issue, and is threatening to sue us for copyright infringement. I explained that he and I will buy pictures when we have more money, and he left it at that. But again, he is coming back and spreading to friends of friends that we took his pictures from him and that it is stealing. Does he have a case? I wanted to order pictures from him, but now I feel it will be hard to work with him after all of this. Never mix friends with business!

So did you purchase the copyright or not? The fact that you agreed at some point in the future to buy pictures from him, and he is upset you are making copies without paying him, tells me you did not.

I never originally said I would purchase pictures from him. I actually had a phone conversation with him asking for a CD and why I wanted a CD (to make photo albums someday). I don't have proof of that because it was a phone conversation. But after this whole issue was brought up, I offered to either buy pictures or even the copyright for the pictures. He said that I didn't need to buy the copyright, but then proceeded to explain the whole copyright infringement issue. I explained that I didn't know about copyright infringement and I never meant to "take" pictures from him. I understand now where he is coming from and why he is upset, but I didn't in the beginning of the whole process because I had never heard of copyright infringement. I just don't want to be sued over something this silly especially when I have offered to buy pictures, but he keeps bringing up suing us instead.

You don't need to buy the copyright; in fact he may not be willing to sell it. (he doesn't have to unless you have a contract that says you have the right to buy it). What you do need to do is purchase the pictures from him if he holds the copyright, otherwise you are infringing and yes you can be sued. Wedding photographers live and die on reputation however so I have a hard time believing that he would be completely unreasonable.

Thanks for your advice!

@swalsh411: Sorry to say, but there is NO copyright on the image EXCEPT to the parties in the picture, NOT to the person/company taking the picture. The person taking the picture failed to watermark.

Only a few questions:

1. Does he have the negatives?
2. Is there written authorization of use of the tangible medium for business purposes?

The main problem I have with this is that he is proving slander against the couple, which in and of itself could be a lawful offense.

But that's just my take on it.