sjbuckner1 Posted January 7, 2008 Share Posted January 7, 2008 I just got a personal message from someone who wants to use one of my images on their website. Does anyone have any suggestions regarding this kind of thing. Should I charge money? What legal rights should I give? etc. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jophus14 Posted January 7, 2008 Share Posted January 7, 2008 I believe that your material is copywritten to you since you are the author. At least they asked. I have heard of horror stories were people stumbled upon their work will browsing CG sites. If they want to use it to promote their company then you should check into it a little more and definitely charge for you work. If they want to pass your image off as their own product then that would be a lie and I'm not sure of the precautions. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sjbuckner1 Posted January 7, 2008 Author Share Posted January 7, 2008 He mentioned it was for a green screen company that would be doing animations for architectural visualizations, and I need to ask why they would want it. Do you have any ideas as to how much I should charge? I've never done this before so I don't know what its worth. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BrianKitts Posted January 7, 2008 Share Posted January 7, 2008 Out of curiosity.....Do you even have the legal rights to sell the image? If it is an image that you did under contract for another client then technically the image belongs to the client that you performed your services for. They would be the ones that would have to sign off on a release of the image. For my freelance work there is a section in my contracts that cover my ability to display "their" image in my portfolio after creation with a clause about not reselling the image to another client for profit. Which is kinda of what you would be doing..... Now grant it, you could resell your work if someone's willing to buy it, but like I said before I could see the person who contracted your visualization services having a problem with "their" image being sold for profit. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
EddieLeon Posted January 7, 2008 Share Posted January 7, 2008 He mentioned it was for a green screen company that would be doing animations for architectural visualizations They probably need your image because they have a weak portfolio. If their company is a competitor in any way then I suggest you do not give it to them even if they pay you for it. If it was a realtor or someone non-competitive then it would be ok as long as you are given proper credit. Every little bit of public exposure helps. I agree with Brian. You should ask for the client's permission. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sjbuckner1 Posted January 7, 2008 Author Share Posted January 7, 2008 Thanks for the advice Guys Fortunately for me I did the rendering for myself so there were no clients involved. I guess I should look into it a little further to see what they want it for. I feel like if my name were attached to the image some how to show that I was the artist and if some money were involved I would feel ok about it. Is this wrong? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
EddieLeon Posted January 7, 2008 Share Posted January 7, 2008 There's absolutely nothing wrong with that. You need to promote yourself whenever possible. There is a business side to being a successful artist. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sjbuckner1 Posted January 7, 2008 Author Share Posted January 7, 2008 Thanks for the responses. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JamesTaylor Posted January 8, 2008 Share Posted January 8, 2008 Out of curiosity.....Do you even have the legal rights to sell the image? If it is an image that you did under contract for another client then technically the image belongs to the client that you performed your services for. They would be the ones that would have to sign off on a release of the image. For my freelance work there is a section in my contracts that cover my ability to display "their" image in my portfolio after creation with a clause about not reselling the image to another client for profit. Which is kinda of what you would be doing..... Now grant it, you could resell your work if someone's willing to buy it, but like I said before I could see the person who contracted your visualization services having a problem with "their" image being sold for profit. not sure of the law in the US but over here in the UK its the other way around to what your suggesting. If i produce an image for a client i retain copyright of that image and am allowing the client to use it for specific applications (this in reality would be whatever advertising media they like - be it print, web etc.) for the fee agreed. Unless specifically requested and outlined contracturally the client do not own the copyright of the image. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
alfienoakes Posted January 8, 2008 Share Posted January 8, 2008 Good point James, However, it is worth mentioning it to the guys you did the work for. We have done this on a couple of projects. I know someone who provides media solutions to businesses, but his company was unable to provide Architectural renderings. So, we hooked up, and we now display some of our work on his site. He can now offer Architectural Renderings in his folio; he is happy, and we can now benefit from his contacts and current workload as we are doing those Architectural renderings; so we are happy. We are working for him as a sub-contractor basically. We dont get mentioned on his website, and effectively he is passing our work off as something that his company can "provide". If you are comfortable with doing this every now and then, it can work. You need to be sure of who you are working with thou, so they dont stitch you up. i.e. use your images, then build up their own skills to do the work you pulled in for them..! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BrianKitts Posted January 8, 2008 Share Posted January 8, 2008 not sure of the law in the US but over here in the UK its the other way around to what your suggesting. If i produce an image for a client i retain copyright of that image and am allowing the client to use it for specific applications (this in reality would be whatever advertising media they like - be it print, web etc.) for the fee agreed. Unless specifically requested and outlined contracturally the client do not own the copyright of the image. Interesting..... see that seems backwards to me, that would mean that you aren't selling your work as a service but rather creating a piece of work that you would "allow" them to use, almost like music..... in which case you could push it to the point of requesting a royalty any time they use "your" image that you created for them. Even if our law was that way, I guess the way my contracts are setup, would reverse that scenario. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
EddieLeon Posted January 8, 2008 Share Posted January 8, 2008 Actually, I think there are some US studios that demand royalties for each time a rendering is used. That's what some clients have told us. Renderings can be beautiful artwork. But, unless you are a Picasso that's being asked to do something unique I think it doesn't make good business sense to be difficult with a client about ownership and royalties. What you want to do is encourage a client to work with you in a long term relationship. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Matt Clementson Posted January 8, 2008 Share Posted January 8, 2008 I think it depends on how your contracts are written. Certainly when I did bureau work our contract was that we owned the image and granted an license to the client covering their use of the final image and preventing them selling it on to third parties, whilst we retained full rights to the image. There were clauses in there allowing the client to prevent our use for a specified time period (usually 6 months) as generally images were sensitive in nature (eg planning applications) but after the time period was up we could do what we liked with it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
EddieLeon Posted January 8, 2008 Share Posted January 8, 2008 Yep. It's very important to have this clearly defined in your contract. Ownership and Non-disclosure are some of the sticky points that clients always want to adjust to their favor. What it boils down to is that they don't want to be limited in how they can use a product that they purchased from you. I agree that the artist needs to be protected if the client tries to sell the rendering to a third party. Most clients in the real estate business wouldn't do this, but it's a good idea to be protected just in case. Now that we are on this topic, shouldn't the Arch Viz industry have standardized contracts that artists can use? If architects have them shouldn't we do the same? I believe it's hard for new artists to create contracts that will give the good protection. They are also not in the position to be hiring expensive lawyers that can do it for them. My 2 cents... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jophus14 Posted January 8, 2008 Share Posted January 8, 2008 As from what most people have said on here already, be very clear in your contract as to the limitations of how your work will be used. I have read from other threads on other forums that an artist from this site (which is one of my favorites BTW) http://www.d-e-s-i-g-n.ru is willing to sell his work to be used from business/personal purposes. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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