Property releases

[Jo Kearney]

I'm a bit confused about property releases.  I can understand it if it is someone's house or possession but does property that is state owned need a property release?  For example in former Soviet republics does a statue of Lenin need a property release or an abandoned port?

[Bryan]

I don't have a definitive answer, but I do tend to err on the side of caution with releases and, if in any doubt, mark the image as requiring a release. It doesn't appear to prevent them from selling.  My understanding is that it is only an issue if the shot is to be used commercially, i.e. an advert, but I have sold photos for that purpose which I have marked as requiring a property release. In that instance I assume that the responsibility rests with the user. In the case of your Russian images of very old statues etc I doubt if anyone would be upset either way, but I also feel that stating that a release is required would not hurt  and that would be my choice. 

 

I would be interested to hear other opinions!

[M.Chapman]

12 hours ago, Jo Kearney said:

I'm a bit confused about property releases.  I can understand it if it is someone's house or possession but does property that is state owned need a property release?  For example in former Soviet republics does a statue of Lenin need a property release or an abandoned port?

 

On Alamy it's now* simple. The question in AIM is "Is there any property in your image". If the image contains recognisable property which is owned by anyone (NB. Also includes design, brand or artwork which maybe owned by it's creator), then tick the box. So, for statue of Lenin, tick YES for Property and NO for release. Images marked like this will still sell as editorial, and sometimes as commercial too as the user/publisher can make their own judgement depending on their intended use and local legislation. If you want to prevent commercial use, then tick the editorial only box.

 

*A few years ago Alamy AIM used to ask "Does your image contain property that requires a release". That often required a more complex judgement, but Alamy have now simplified it.

 

Mark

Edited November 22, 2019 by M.Chapman