---------- Original Message ----------------------------------
From: NSURIT@xxxxxxx
Reply-To: olympus@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Date: Fri, 19 Oct 2001 19:38:39 EDT
>In a recent post to the list I mentioned that I used a 4 X 6 card
>with a photo release on it and keep them in my camera case.
>Several people have expressed an interest in the release. Should
>anyone wish to have a copy of the actual release they can send me
>a stamped envelope large enough to accommodate the card and I'll
>mail one to them. What follows is the wording I use. I am not an
>attorney and make no representation that this will keep
>you from getting sued in Texas or any other state, however it is
>what I use. Please do not interpret this as being legal advice.
>It is not legal advice.
>Bill Barber,
--- SNIP ---
I haven't followed all that closely the discussion about model
releases, being away from home at the moment in a motel in
Alabamastan, where we have traveled for the Tennessee-Alabama
football game later today. However, I'm putting in my two cents'
worth anyway. If this has already been covered, excuse the
repetition, but I don't want any of us to be afraid to take
photographs that may include others of our species because of
potential legal issues that really don't exist.
As I have always understood, anybody in a public place is fair
game and no model release is needed unless the photograph is going
to be used for commercial purposes. If I snap a shot of a wide
body waddling across the parking lot at the mall, I can make 11x14
prints, show them to my co-workers and friends, enter one in a
TOPE event, pretty much do anything with this image that I don't
get paid for. But if I sell the shot to an advertising agency and
it's used in a Slim-Fast ad, I would have to have a model release.
As a judge I work with often says, "I may be wrong, but I'm not
uncertain." Anybody who knows better and has studied the issue is
free to correct me, but since all my photography is strictly for
fun, it's not an issue that had really been of great concern to
me. And I will echo exactly what Bill said: This is not legal
advice. You're on your own, and if I'm wrong, my sincere apology
is all I can offer.
Walt Wayman
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