How much to charge for CD w/ ALL rights to images for a business event?

[Norma_S]

I've been asked by a company to quote my price for 4-6 hours of event photography and to burn all images to a CD with ALL rights released for all images.

I've already got a price worked up for a CD of all images with a personal print release to an individual but not for a CD with all rights released to a business.

Anybody have any suggestions on how much I should quote?

[HotHolly]

For ALL rights, ask for top dollar. Thats rare that they want all the rights...at least from what we have done thus far. There are a few more people in here that shoot commercial frequently. I'm sure they'll chime in and help you out!

[ndsimm]

Ask them to define "all rights"...that means different things to different people. As the photographer, how much ownership do you retain? Can you sell, repost, or do anything else to the images?

[Norma_S]

Good point, Nathan. I think I'll email them back asking for clarification on "all rights".

[Reuel]

Please share what happens here. I'm just a hobbyist, but I'm in a similar situation with a "client" where I spent several hours shooting, made CDs for them, and licensed them to use in any way they please, "pro bono", and now they say they owned the images all along and I'm not supposed to use them otherwise. I know better, but having an idea of what "all rights" costs would be useful.

[DEMDeepEllumMusic]

Norma be sure in writing to clarify that you keep full rights also to all of the works, per the way that the law is written about copyright, yes you may release all your rights for them to reproduce the images but you nor your estate never gives up your own copyrights.

BTW I would charge a premium for the service since they gain all rights to reproduction.

Also where did this trend of giving all rights start from and how can it be stopped?

[Gordon]

Originally Posted by DEMDeepEllumMusic

Also where did this trend of giving all rights start from and how can it be stopped?

I think you have it backwards. The trend is more towards photographers keeping rights, than say it was 10, 20 or 50 years ago.

[DEMDeepEllumMusic]

Gordon I believe that you are wrong on the professional side and that you are thinking about the general photographer which is true but people shooting for a client rarely gave rights away across the board.

(I started another seperate thread to try to delve into this subject in this section so that it isn't tied to a particular photographers question for a job).

[suzyjazz]

I would never give up ALL rights unless... they paid me enough to retire. I'm currently 29.

By all rights they PROBABLY mean rights for them to edit and reproduce in any means they wish (print, electronic). But as everyone said, you definitely need to find out. It seems unusual that they would care if you retained copyright and for use in promoting your own business, but I guess anything is possible.

[Norma_S]

I quoted them my commercial rate already and asked for clarification on the "all rights". I haven't heard back yet. If they say they want the copyrights to the images, then I'll quote them a high price and I would appreciate your opinions of what a "high" price should be. I don't want to be one of those photographers that does "shoot to burn" at a cheap price and gets clients thinking this is how everybody should do it.

[CaptainTom]

Norma
I shoot this sort of event routinely. My thoughts are that unless a specific situation exists that would warrant special handling, I give the company rights of reproduction because that is all they really want. They don't want to negotiate with you every time they put a photo into the company newsletter or send it to the trade journal. The special handling would come into play if they wanted me to shoot a specific shot that was to be used in their marketing or advertising. The type of function and time allotted dictates my rates. I have a basic daily and half daily rate, and we go up from there as the complexity increases.

[adirty1]

I would come up with a Right of Usage contract.

I normally use a Limited Usage Agreement:

State the name of the company and grant them limited usage rights of the images taken on the day of and event. the client my use the images for non commercial usage. IE news letters website.

The images my not be sold to another party unless the photographer (your name) has granted writen permission.

Any violations of the Limited Usage Agreement (their name ) must pay twice the normal usage fee per infringement.

you can also go into the whole commercial side such as ads of any kind and such. It is a very simple and straight forward agreement and most clients really have no problems with it and are happy to sign.

of course have them sign them the bottom and date it you must sign it too and date it..

when i have sold one or two images with unlimited print reproduction rights i charged the combined fees of all three mediums. papers, billboards, and annual reports. the price normally ran around 2k... per image

[Gordon]

Originally Posted by DEMDeepEllumMusic

Gordon I believe that you are wrong on the professional side and that you are thinking about the general photographer which is true but people shooting for a client rarely gave rights away across the board.

No, I was specifically thinking about professional photographers. Work for hire contracts aren't anything new. As I mentioned in that other thread, the FSA work of many early photographers would be a good example.

[Dokk]

If they truly want all rights including copyrights to the images, you are essentially creating a work for hire or contract labor scenario. In this case, you are under thier employ while you are working on thier assignment. Be sure to quote an hourly rate and this includes ALL time spent including travel, prep and time spent burning CDs, etc.

Now, before I do this, I would talk with them (not email but true face to face meeting) and explain what they are asking for. Many times, companies say they want all rights to a photograph not understanding that they can get all the rights that they really need and it will cost them much less. Explain that they can get exlusive or non-exclusive rights to the images for a set length of time (usually 2 or so years) while you retain copyrights. After the time limit expires, they must come back to you and repurchase rights to the photos and that repurchase is usually at a much higher price but basically extends the contract. You can spell out usage rights however you want in a contract and as long as everyone signs it, it's all very enforceable and can benefit everyone involved.

When I shot an album cover for a rapper last year, they wanted rights based on how the music industry works with copyrights and usage rights, etc. When I told them that I wouldn't sign over ALL rights to my work, they got up and walked away from the table. they started checking around and found that what I'd told them was true but also that going to a photog that the record company recommended would cost them a lot more than what I was charging. (He was gonna cost them about $250,000)

Get face to face with them and find out what they truly want and work from there.

[Norma_S]

I never did hear back from them regarding clarification of the "all rights".