So I got this e-mail today..... :eek:

[sidewalkdoctor]

Got an e-mail from a good friend who manages & runs web sites in Pompey, the gist of it being

I want to use a part of one of your photos of Pompey as a banner for a website I am designing for Portsmouth ******* **** *****. How much cash do you want for the copyright? Or if not the full copyright, then the royalty for using it.

.

Any ideas on my reply? Do I surrender copyright & if so, for how much? Or do I stick with a royalty bearing in mind it is NHS related.....


Ben


Edit:- just realised I've posted this in the WildLife section... DOH!!

[TeresaW]

Don't just surrender copyright, sell it. If they are not prepared to pay then be prepared to negotiate a deal where you retain your own copyright enabling you to sell elsewhere if the opportunity arises.

Generally, the copyright of a photo belongs to the photographer, unless he is working directly for a publication. So that copyright becomes negotiable in the same way as a written article.

congratulations, that's two today. Where's the third?

Edit: Bearing in mind sites like this, where any photo's uploaded are agreed to be open to use

[Jason Green]

Hi Ben,

First off, Congratulations

'How much do you want for the copyright?'

Uh-oh. If you sell the copyright, you would then need THEIR permission to continue using it yourself for anything seen publically, maybe then even paying them to do so - it would legally be theirs. It would be in other words, an Exclusive License. I'd prefer to sell one on a Non-exclusive License basis, meaning you sell it to them as a one-off, but as it's non-exclusive you can then go on to sell it again elsewhere.

Reply to them suggesting how much you are prepared to accept for it - but be prepared to haggle, for want of the official word! - and phrase it as a non-exclusive license. They say 'Royalty'. In the normal sense this means you make money each time something is sold, so if this is the case you will need to settle on a percentage instead, I believe. They may actually mean the said non-exclusive license.

Await other comments before replying to them, as others know this legal stuff better than I!

Take care,

Jason