concerning Tennessee or US copyright laws in general.
I am a commercial photographer dealing with two different situations. What is common in both is that the clients asked for all rights or transfer of copyright to their organizations. I am usually against this, but I could not afford to lose the assignments, plus in both cases there is no way that I could really use the images in the future for myself.
Situation / Question 1: I have a long time client who has given us a lot of business over an 8-10 year period. I always told them that the images were theirs to use as much as they wanted, but recently they asked for a formal transfer of copyright on all past and future images that I produce for them. Again I cannot afford to lose the client, so I agreed and drew up a transfer, signed it, emailed it as a pdf. I asked that they sign it and return a copy for my records. They have not signed it and this was 3 months ago. Although, they have done some business with me since then, they are terrible about communicating via both email and phone. So the question is this: Is the agreement still valid if they do not sign it in a certain amount of time?
Situation / Question 2: A just did a small photo shoot for an big international corporation. They stated that they wanted all rights on the images. I put this transfer in a short job contract which stated that payment was due net 15 days of the job date. We both signed it. They of course wanted the pictures almost immediately and used them in a press release world wide within 72 hours of the event. That job was 5 weeks ago and they still have not paid! The question is: do they still have rights to the photos before they have paid in full?
Thank you so much to anyone who reads and responds to these questions!What is the name of your state (only U.S. law)?
I am a commercial photographer dealing with two different situations. What is common in both is that the clients asked for all rights or transfer of copyright to their organizations. I am usually against this, but I could not afford to lose the assignments, plus in both cases there is no way that I could really use the images in the future for myself.
Situation / Question 1: I have a long time client who has given us a lot of business over an 8-10 year period. I always told them that the images were theirs to use as much as they wanted, but recently they asked for a formal transfer of copyright on all past and future images that I produce for them. Again I cannot afford to lose the client, so I agreed and drew up a transfer, signed it, emailed it as a pdf. I asked that they sign it and return a copy for my records. They have not signed it and this was 3 months ago. Although, they have done some business with me since then, they are terrible about communicating via both email and phone. So the question is this: Is the agreement still valid if they do not sign it in a certain amount of time?
Situation / Question 2: A just did a small photo shoot for an big international corporation. They stated that they wanted all rights on the images. I put this transfer in a short job contract which stated that payment was due net 15 days of the job date. We both signed it. They of course wanted the pictures almost immediately and used them in a press release world wide within 72 hours of the event. That job was 5 weeks ago and they still have not paid! The question is: do they still have rights to the photos before they have paid in full?
Thank you so much to anyone who reads and responds to these questions!What is the name of your state (only U.S. law)?