Usage of photos for publicity purposes.

thecommander

I'm a graphic designer and I'm putting together a clients Christmas brochure.

They have photos of people on their premises eating, drinking, dancing etc. None of the photos are candid, all the punters were asked if they wanted their photo taken and it would be used on website/facebook. All agreed.

My client wants to use the pics for their Christmas brochure, but I'm not sure where the legality of it sits. They did agree, but would they have needed to sign release?

Can anyone advise?

Splinters

If they all agreed then theres probably little chance of any problems, but strictly speaking as its for commercial purposes your client should have got them all to sign a model release form to avoid any potential problems.

mdebets

A Christmas brochure isn't website/facebook, so the people didn't agree for this use of their pictures, so you can't use them.
Even if they did, without a model release, your client has no way of proofing they did agree, when the customer later contest it.

CabanSail

"A verbal contract isn't worth the paper it's written on"

dirtyghettokid

i feel for you! i'm a graphic designer myself, and have made many of those awful christmas brochures. my best advice to give to you (if you want to avoid getting into trouble) is try to convince the venue/person in charge to give you a budget for stock photos, to use instead of those images of people (that haven't signed a model release). i always badgered for this. istockphoto was always best value for me.

ado100

It's never a good idea to publish someone's image without their written permission. If your client insists on using the photos, make sure he signs a letter indemnifying you against any claim.

lisatiffany

dirtyghettokid has the right idea, get them to give you a budget for stock photography. Speaking as someone who has had work stolen and then saw it used for commercial use, the original author would not be happy and you don't want an invoice issued over someone else's stubbornness. There are plenty of stock sites that have more than enough of what you are looking for, never assume just because you see an image online that it's fair game.

Kenny Logins

I work in print and we have had to reprint jobs (at the customer's own expense) for this very reason. Even with a group shot of 10 people, if one person objects that's the job binned. Stock photography is much safer. Online, you can just take a picture down or crop it.

thecommander

Tracked down the people and they authorised them. Think they got a dinner out of it!

Thanks for the replies.

thecommander

lisatiffany wrote: »

..never assume just because you see an image online that it's fair game.

I didn't find the image online, it was taken by the hotels photographer. Fairly clear in the OP.

I get how stock photos work, but we wanted to use pics of punters eating in their restaurant, and drinking in their bar. Stock pics won't give you that.

lisatiffany

@thecommander

Oh I didn't mean that at you directly, I just mean a lot of people think if they find something on the internet then they are free to take it and do whatever they want with it minus any repercussions. Businesses do it all the time from hotels to IT companies, they could save themselves a lot of trouble if they used purchased stock photography.

Good to hear you found the people in the original picture, most venues stage an authorized scene in order to avoid any issues of punters objecting to their image being used commercially. Anyways you got it sorted, well done.