rights to pictures
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rights to pictures
I am a contracted fishing guide. On the fishing trips I take pictures of the customers and their fish. The company that I am contracted through asks me for the pics so they can advertise online. The pics taken are on their boats with my phone with customers they booked. they hire me to run the trip. I now have started my own guide service and I want to use the pictures I have taken in the past. The company that contracts me says I cannot use the pics. In fact the pics are now theirs. Do I have the right to use pics I took on their boats when they contracted me to run them? I did give them verbal permission to use them. They post the pics on their website and facebook and other forms of advertising. I never signed anything. Do I have the right to tell them to stop using the pics? Whose pics are they?
Asked on March 4, 2017 under Employment Labor Law, Texas
Answers:
SJZ, Member, New York Bar / FreeAdvice Contributing Attorney
Answered 7 years ago | Contributor
Taking the pictures was something you did as part of your employment or engagement: as such, they belong to the company which hired you (i.e. the one you were contracted through) and are not yours. Any photos or other creative work made during, in the course of, or for work, whether you were an employee or a contractor, belongs to the one who hired/paid you. They would, in this case, belong to the company contracting with you.
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