From: Larry Colen
I just got a call from Costco about some photos I just had printed,
that they would need a signed release from the photographer before
they could give me the photos that had been taken by a professional.
When I informed them that I was the photographer, they said it was no
problem then.
It's usually a corporate policy handed down to photo-labs that they are
not allowed to reproduce copyrighted works without the copyright
holder's permission. And, again usually, there's no guidance on how to
go about implementing the policy. That's left up the the local lab
operator. The corporate policy is intended to protect the CORPORATION,
not the lab operator.
The DMCA was written by assholes for assholes!
If you go to a mini-lab and have them print copyrighted photos, the law
allows the copyright holder to sue the owner of the equipment. It's
aimed at the manufacturers of pirated music CDs. Corporate policy not to
print copyrighted works shifts the onus down onto the lab operator. More
about this later.
They gave no consideration to how it would affect something like "shoot
'n burn" wedding photographers. If you do "shoot 'n burn", as a
consideration to the customer, the CD or DVD should include a JPEG image
of a copyright release just to save your customer (and the poor schmuck
running the photo-lab) some hassle.
When I was running the lab and copyrighted images came through on an
online order, the first thing I did was compare the copyright notice to
the customer's name ... an order from Larry Colen to print images
"(c)2010 Larry Colen" wouldn't have rated phone call.
Permission to print your own copyrighted images is implicit in the order.
I have only ever encountered one instance where a lab operator didn't
understand this. She was just smart enough to understand the "no
copyrighted images", but dumb enough she couldn't understand the part
about "without the copyright holder's permission".
I didn't even bother to complain.
An order from Larry Colen to print images "(c)2010 LC Photography" might
rate a call just for clarification, but if you used my lab frequently,
I'd have remembered it for subsequent orders.
About those corporate policies ...
When it *is* corporate policy not to print copyrighted material, if you
decline to print the photos and the customer raises hell - even in a
situation where the customer is clearly intentionally stealing the
photographer's work (BIG watermark "PROOF - (c) yyyy STUDIO NAME - DO
NOT COPY") - the lab operator who follows the corporate policy will get
a written reprimand for failing to provide "good customer service".
BTDT-GTTS!
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