legal to sell photos of musicians?

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• January 29, 2007 @ 5:26pmjmintz says:

  Quick question - what's the legal ruling on selling photos you take of bands at shows? I seem to recall from journalism school that you can't profit from someone else's likeness (appropriation, maybe?) but as a photographer you also own the rights to your art.
• January 29, 2007 @ 9:10pmCOvalle says:

  Two different things involved, at least- Copyright and rights of publicity.
• January 30, 2007 @ 6:00amksmith says:

  Your memory from J-School is essentially correct. As the photographer, you own the copyright in your photos. Simply being the subject of a picture does not confer an intellectual property right per se on the person photographed. But rights of publicity probably do apply to prevent you from exploiting the band members' images without permission. These rights are enforced through state law, so they vary depending on where you are and where you try to sell the photos.
• January 30, 2007 @ 9:03amjmintz says:

  would right to publicity apply in the state the photos were taken or the state the band resides? How does a band enforce right to publicity when they tour the country and/or the world?
• January 30, 2007 @ 1:21pmksmith says:

  The issues of jurisdiction and choice of law are very complex and well outside the scope of this forum. But the short answer to your question is in my earlier post. The law that would apply would be the law of the forum in which a suit was brought. The plaintiff has the choice of where to file, subject to that court having personal jurisdiction over the defendant. And the easiest places to get personal jurisdiction are the states where the defendant lives and/or does business. But there are other options as well, and things are very complicated if the sales take place via the internet If this is a serious concern, you should probably consult a lawyer.
• January 30, 2007 @ 4:07pmjmintz says:

  nah, it's not a serious concern, and not even really my concern...I'm online editor of a print magazine's web site, and one of our photogs recently put photos from a show up for sale...she took the "for sale" sign down off of her web site, but we were just curious.
  
  My wife's a lawyer...I consulted her, but being she's a corporate/securities attorney, she wasn't much help :)

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