Interesting Interview on Vice about Model Releases

[kimba]

Just read this on Vice, Sharing with the forum.

 

What It's Like to Become a Famous Stock Image Without Being Able to Stop It

November 11, 2015

By Norma Costello

 

http://www.vice.com/read/what-its-like-to-have-your-image-used-all-over-the-world-without-realising-209

[Marianne]

Interesting. People don't always understand what they are signing.

 

Thought this other article about a site set up by people who are fighting copyright violations using improperly sourced images on their own was also interesting:

http://www.vice.com/read/canadian-copyright-canipre-images-without-permission

[Chuck Nacke]

Sad Story and one that does "real photographers" no good.

 

I also do not understand why someone would sign a model

release with no clause for a percentage of sales?

[kimba]

I haven't used models in the past, but have been considering it. At this particular point in time,

I can't pay an hourly fee for a model, but I thought that a percentage from my take home pay

for each sale of an image that used the model would be a way to work around that.

[Chuck Nacke]

Kimba,

 

Most of the time I have not been working with "models", but when I do I have a specific

model release that clearly states that, "It is the responsibility of the model to keep me

informed of their contact information and that the model would receive a percentage of

all commercial license fees."  Most binding commercial releases require this and in the

event that an image is licensed for commercial use by a large client or consumer print

campaign, the agency creating the ad or campaign would require communication with

the model, at least the good agencies or smart clients.

 

When I worked for a commercial agency making images for large clients, that is the way

we did it.  You would also be surprised at how many models did not keep up to date contact

information with me.

[kimba]

Thank you for that information, Chuck!

 

I need to get a stack of model releases just to have on hand.

 

I do a lot of travel photography, and mostly I try to keep people out of my images - or far enough away, or with their back turned, so they aren't recognizable. But I've been thinking of doing more people images as I love shooting candid portrait-style.