Should I use Model release forms?
Jun.28, 2009 in
Photography LAW
An individual has certain rights to control the use of their image. The specific details will vary from one country to another depending on national legislation, although the general rule seems to be to protect a person against defamatory or offensive use of their image.
If you intend to sell or distribute images that include people, then it is worth getting your subjects to sign a model release form as this will protect you against any comeback.
April 9th, 2010 at 2:05 am
This is one of my pet areas of discussion, because, from the research I have done a release form is not legally required by the photographer to use the images, particularly where the photographer has paid the model for the shoot. Section 114 of the Copyright and Related Acts 200 deals with the right to privacy in photographs and films and states:
(1) Subject to the exceptions specified in subsection (3), a person who, for private and domestic purposes, commissions the taking of a photograph or the making of a film has, where copyright subsists in the resulting work, the right not to have the work or copies of the work made available to the public.
(2) Subject to subsection (3), the act of making available to the public, or authorising the making available to the public, of a work or copies of a work referred to in subsection (1) without the authority of the person who commissions the work infringes the right conferred by subsection (1).
(3) The right conferred by subsection (1) shall not be infringed by an act which under section 52 , 71, 72, 76 or 88 would not infringe the copyright in the work.
Section 52 deals with using the images afterwards in an incidental manner, e.g. advertising the photographer’s own business, and sections 71, 72, 76 and 88 all deal with the potential to have to publish for legal purposes, e.g. court.
Given that models are not posing for private or domestic purposes, I cannot see how they would be protected under Section 114. Purely from a photographer’s point of view, it does make sense that, where the model is paid, the photographer can use the images afterwards, otherwise what is the model being paid for? In addition, unlike a private individual, a model, due to the nature of their work, should expect that their image be made public.
Unfortunately, I have noticed an increase in the number of models who want to be paid for a photo shoot and then want to have a say in how the photographs are used. This is trying to have your cake and eat it, if you want that control over the photographs you have to buy the rights to them, or commission the photographer for a specific purpose.