Stock Photo / Famous Faces...

[Dusty!]

A question for you guys who might know the answer. I am working on a book about Sturgis (yearly motorcycle rally)... The photography manly consists of michael lichter, as well as some historical photos provided by the Sturgis Rally museum. The text hits on the history of cycling in general and we have decided to use some small inset shots from a few famous motor cycle movies - Easy Rider and The Wild One. Searched some stock agencies and found some good shots from both Corbis and Kobal. Licensed the photos from them for 1/4 page shots etc... everythings cool. Im ready to run all our photos through our in house legal department (all photography we use goes through them first)... they are telling me i need to write the respective studios (the movie studios) to get permission to use the photos... So i did so and the studio is asking for an additional $250 on top of the Kobal charges and also has said that i need to contact the representatives for Marlon Brando to get permission to use the picture.

So all of this is now over our budget. But my question - How can a stock agency sell me a photo for x amount and not really have the rights to do so? seems like they are selling me nothing really, i payed the money and cant use the picture... In the end i think our legal department fucked us cause i think we would have been fine if not asked to call the studio.

any comments?

[DaveGink]

Hmmm...strange. And I don't have the answer. But the stock Photo company should have the rights. You (or your legal dept) may want to look at the licensing agreement for the stock photos and see what it says. Maybe they have limited uses (and books don't count). In any case I'd contact the stock photo company and let them know what's happening.

Weird.

[bdix]

Have you tried getting the image directly through the studio? Kinda like taking out the middle man.

That doesn't seem right. You shouldn't have to pay twice. Let us know how it turns out.

[Dusty!]

Welp looks like im fucked here, i talked to the legal dept and our photoo editor basically what im being told is every publisher decides what their stand is on publishing film stills and other photos of celebrities.* Some would consider this fair use because it's being reproduced in an editorial context, and they will not obtain additional permission from the film studios. But, Running Press will not take that risk of not getting permission, and as the studios have told us we will have to pay extra we need to yank the photos, hello last minute redesign nice to meet you.

[Phil-Padwe]

The only way the movie studio can legally levy an additional licensing fee is if it's for rights or usage not covered by the stock photography licensing agreement (assuming there's an agreement already in place between the stock agency and the movie company to begin with).

Sounds like the stock company and the film company ought to be duking this one out... did you inform the movie-folks that you'd already secured the rights to reproduce the photos?

If they've found a viable loop-hole, you can find one too... maybe credit the stock photography people, rather than the movie, in the book?

[Phil-Padwe]

Ouch, that sucks...

[bdix]

hello last minute redesign nice to meet you.

"flip-horizontal".

Also, would you have to get permission from the Brando estate? Sorry, not trying to shit on your parade. Just curious.

[Dusty!]

yup, the studio said i would have to get brando's permission as well which seems ridiculous. i have to get permission and pay 3 different sources to use a single photo.

The easy rider folks didnt say shit about contacting fonda but they want money as well. bastards are fuckin up my book.

[bdix]

You should just get a few of the artist here to do illos of the pictures in question...

Seriously, every motorcycle book I've seen looks the same.

[rotodesign]

Maybe it's because the photos are film stills the studios retain some kind of copyright? When I worked at Modern Humorist we licensed a ton of celebrity photos for our book, the catch is that they were mostly paparazzi photos taken at public events. We used Archive Photos (now defunct) after getting turned down by Corbis.