This weeks Ask The Guys question comes from Brian Bielanski out of Los Angeles, California. Brian asks about the new wave of realtors asking photographers to sign copyright agreements. We have seen this starting to pop up all over the country in recent months. Neither Rich or Brian have signed one of these to date but they give some insight to help you make a more informed decisions.
Please remember, Rich and Brian are not attorneys and they are not giving any legal advice. That being said, definitely contact your attorney if your considering signing one of these agreements to make sure you are covering yourself! Enjoy the episode!
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This question came up at the right time! We have a broker who just brought this topic up for us. We are in a small town, and this broker does bring us in a lot of work, and more specifically the better homes in the area. He specifically stated he will not use the images for commercial use and financially benefit from it. He wants his 5 person team to have full rights to the images from here on out and does not want the images we capture for him to be re-licensed to anyone else in the event he loses the listing, etc. And he wants the rights to “gift” the images to homeowners and even builders. He is giving us the chance to create a contract that’s more specific to his requests.
Hi Rich and Brian,
I’ve included a link below that hopefully will take you to the form that the CAR (California Association of Realtors) came up with, and what photographers are being presented with (at least in CA). I’ve bene informed by a client of mine that agents are being strongly encouraged to have their photographers sign it. I myself have been presented with this agreement once from a Coldwell Banker agent.