Can we upload images to Alamy that we have taken as part of a client commission?

[OsborneHollis]

Hello, we're a commercial photographer company in the UK and have worked with clients for many years on their commissions, events etc. I'd like to know whether the pictures we have taken on behalf of the clients can be added to our Alamy library? As is normally the case, the client pays us for the time and delivery of the the images - but can we then sell them for stock? Is there a period of time that must elapse before we do? We don't issue contracts for each job so assume that the default arrangement is that the photographer owns the copyright of the images. Any guidance would be most appreciated, thanks

[spacecadet]

Depends on the licence conditions for the commission. If you really don't have a written contract (which I find extraordinary, but that's by the by) then you can probably submit images for uses which don't conflict with the purpose for which they were commissioned. Perhaps an editorial restriction.

I would be cautious about any material which might reasonably be regarded as confidential or proprietary.

With regard to your wedding photography, you would need permission as there is a specific exception in the CDPA covering the right to publish photographs commissioned for a private purpose.

Oh, and here's a piece of advice you didn't ask for- draw up contracts from now on. 

[AlbertSnapper]

In the past with commissioned work, I've made a point that I want to be able to use the pictures for my/stock purposes after.

Capitalalise on all eventualities when doing stock. It's tough to make money otherwise !

Some clients won't have a clue about copyright/stock/reuse etc. 

Also remember, you may have had a commission where pictures may have had to be cleared (not by your client, but your client's client)  before being released to your client. Could be issues there (I've been told not to 'put out there' images that contain photographs of anyone who wasn't wearing their hard hat !). I once had a big UK energy provider go thru 200 odd images before they could be released to my client who were working for the energy company concerned.

Lastly, if doing commissioned work, always look for opportunities for doing stock pics, even if nothing to do with the job that you're doing (so long as in the boundaries set).

I'm sure others here have better and more sensible advice than me.

[Chuck Nacke]

In answer to your question, Yes, BUT....

 

I come out of decades of doing corporate photography and I have never released an

image I shot while working for a large corporation (client) for stock.  in the 1980

I picked up a great client, did their annual report photography for a decade, because

the photographer they were working with put images that he shot for them in London

into stock and it was licensed and used in a two page ad by a competing bank......

 

If I want to put images that I create on commission into stock I clear it with the client

first.

 

Many of the images I have on Alamy were shot for corporate clients, but those companies

are long gone so there can be not conflict.

[gvallee]

On a recent assignment, the client agreed that I could use for stock pix of landscapes taken during the shoot, but not of people.

Mind you, I was covering a particularly sensitive issue.

 

Gen

[TeeCee]

On 24/01/2018 at 12:19, OsborneHollis said:

Hello, we're a commercial photographer company in the UK and have worked with clients for many years on their commissions, events etc. I'd like to know whether the pictures we have taken on behalf of the clients can be added to our Alamy library? As is normally the case, the client pays us for the time and delivery of the the images - but can we then sell them for stock? Is there a period of time that must elapse before we do? We don't issue contracts for each job so assume that the default arrangement is that the photographer owns the copyright of the images. Any guidance would be most appreciated, thanks

As the supplier of the images, you dictate the license terms, not the client. Copyright always remains with you unless there is a WRITTEN agreement to the contrary - my understanding being that a verbal agreement is not allowable, so in theory you can do whatever you like with them. In practise you need to be sensible about what you upload, and what you do not.

[Alex Ramsay]

Bear in mind that copyright always resides with the image creator, but that is not at all the same thing as usage rights