Action Sports Cartel

Hi Guys, I just wanted to see what you more established shooters might think of this situation regarding a mag editor wanting to hang onto exclusive rights of shots for a year after running them in editorial. So you know the background story: the mag issue with the shots was run, off the shelf and some months later I had the shots used online for personal promotion purposes. The site is not a competitor to the magazine.

His thoughts are:

"It’s kind of standard I think that any photos we publish that we have exclusive publishing rights for the year."

"I think there should be a gracing period of 6 months.
And if not. Can I have access to run all your shots that were published this season in the mags to put on our site? It doesn’t add up for me."

"From my angle, it means that I now know that when I use your images in print I don’t retain any competitive edge or exclusivity."

What are your thoughts or any set standards in your arena on this?

if it's your own personal website, it wouldn't bother me, but if it's another media outlet/company site where many people may be viewing it, of any source, i might be gripped if it ran concurrently. Typically, mags have standard policy on this kind of thing, so better to check up before putting your photo on web.

Hey Colin,

I think he's saying that the mag ran the photo, then after it was done being on the shelf (new issue came out), and then a few months after that, the shots were used.

I personally don't see any issue whatsoever. I typically put my photos up on my website once the mag is out. If it's months after the mag is out I see no issue whatsoever selling the photo, or using it especially to promote yourself.

If the mag wants exclusive 1 year use, I think he'll need to start ponying up a lot more cash than a couple hundred bucks

I'm with Brian on this one,

I put every photo I like on my personal site that I like, whether a mags going to use it or not. Hasn't been a problem yet.

I think once the issue is off the shelf it should be pretty much fair game to send elsewhere as long as the next user is aware of its prior use(if they do care, some web based media don't seem to mind)

Thanks for your input guys, sounds like I was on the right track (especially on the more dollars front Brian!!).

Cheers.