I would contact the client. Your contract is with the client not anyone else. I'll make a few assumptions based on the language of the contract that we use. The client grants to us the exclusive right to photograph an event for the purpose of selling images both on-site as well as via the Internet. If someone else is selling photographs either on-site or on-line and the client is made aware of it, it is up to them to protect our license. We can't stop anyone from shooting at any event under any circumstance, that's up to the event organizer to do. Your only hope in this is to have your client send a cease order to the poacher. You can contact the other photographer if you want but in the end they had no agreement with you and thus didn't break any contract with you.
One of our largest clients this year informed all the media outlets that as part of granting access to an event the papers/magazines would be restricted to 'editorial' use only. I didn't find out about this until one of the 'press' photographers approached me at an event to grumble. But I know that at least in the case of this client, our interests are being protected to the best to their ability.
Finally one bit of advise that we received was to have the group's logo appear as part of the uniforms. This can be as simple as an iron on patch or a logo as part of a pin on bib #. The key being that the logo will be in a prominate location on the uniform and thus any pictures. The rationale being that the organizers can then enforce / stop the sale of their logo/trademark. I'm not a lawyer but the advice did come from one.... Ever notice that every NFL jersey has the NFL logo sewn to the neckline?
E.
White Balance so easy, even our 5 year old can do it.- Melissa Strickland
Finally one bit of advise that we received was to have the group's logo appear as part of the uniforms. This can be as simple as an iron on patch or a logo as part of a pin on bib #. The key being that the logo will be in a prominate location on the uniform and thus any pictures. The rationale being that the organizers can then enforce / stop the sale of their logo/trademark. I'm not a lawyer but the advice did come from one.... Ever notice that every NFL jersey has the NFL logo sewn to the neckline?
[/ QUOTE ]
This makes sense to me. To use the photos commercially you'd need to have a model / property release which would have to come from the sponsoring organization. It makes it very easy for them to enforce the issue on "bureaucratic" grounds ("our policy is not to permit anyone to use our trademark with out a license agreement, we never make after the fact license agreements, please stop now"). Somehow many people tend to find such reasoning easier to follow than the "sorry, please stop, we have an exclusive agreement" approach. Also making it a trademark issue probably makes the whole discussion very cut and dried -- the question of 'rights" to photograph, etc, don't even come into play.
Doug
White Balance so easy, even our 5 year old can do it.- Melissa Strickland
I would be just as angry if I paid a vendor fee, showed up, and a parent or super Fan, was giving away their work for free on a Non Commercial website.
(That happen to me)
Kills your market, even if your pictures are way better, a person who can get just as good for free, poaching areas, will think twice before spending on your images.
I shoot a cross section of events, like Norm, some motor sports, like you some horse type events, and some youth events.
I have exclusive contracts, and if I think someone might be posting for sale, I get the event director to step in. Not my fight, but I remind he.she, that I paid a vendor fee, or made an investment to be there.
GWC, or mom and dads with cameras are not going to hurt my business, in fact I do not think twice about giving them marketing material.
However, those who give away all their images, you have two solutions, deal with them or work around them.
One work around is not shoot that team, but you are doing equestrian, and that is more like skating, gymnastics, so that is not in your interest to ignore something.
The only thing that goes away if you ignore them, is your teeth.
EJS
White Balance so easy, even our 5 year old can do it.- Melissa Strickland
"The real difference is that I don't intend to sell my pictures, while the event-contracted photographer does. But I own the copyright to my photos. Why shouldn't I be able to sell them to anyone I want?"
I would say the biggest reason why you should not be able to sell is that you are likely not on public property and not at a public event (in most cases, exceptions abound of course). As such the owner of the sandbox gets to set the rules. If those rules stipulate only certain people are allowed to sell photos then that is what the rules state. You probably cannot show up and sell hot dogs, for example, because they likely have a vendor contracted to do that already.
To me, the issue of mom and dad showing up to take photos on their own, for their own use, is fundamentally no different than bringing your own box lunch instead of buying from the concession stand. But bringing your own food to sell, well, that's a different story. Ditto for taking and selling photos.
White Balance so easy, even our 5 year old can do it.- Melissa Strickland
I'd like to add just a bit of a different perspective. This is for all those who think it's ok to poach on another photographer.
Imagine when you go into work tomorrow you see someone in your work area doing some of your duties. Your boss tells you that this is an unpaid guest worker that will be taking some of your work away from you. Cool! I don't have to work as hard. Yeah, real cool. What your boss didn't tell you, but which you will find out about at your next payday, is that while the guest worker isn't getting paid by the company, your paycheck has been reduced for the work that you used to do but are not doing now because the guest worker took it away from you. The company says "We're not going to pay you for work that you don't do. That's only fair, isn't it?" What really irks you is that you weren't even asked if you wanted to give up that work. If you knew that you were going to lose some income you certainly wouldn't have agreed to do it, but...nobody asked you!
Just something to think about the next time you're tempted to pull out the black camera.
White Balance so easy, even our 5 year old can do it.- Melissa Strickland
[ QUOTE ]
One work around is not shoot that team, but you are doing equestrian, and that is more like skating, gymnastics, so that is not in your interest to ignore something.
[/ QUOTE ]
Since I have ring access, typically what I do is keep an eye on the poacher and try to position myself so I keep getting in their shots. This has worked pretty well. One guy even complained to me about it.
Bill
White Balance so easy, even our 5 year old can do it.- Melissa Strickland
Linear Mode
