Professional Photography Market Trends
Is this illegal? Please help! Copyright Question.?
I have a friend who works for a lg. retail photography chain of studios. Recently she (and other photographers) were handed a binder with pages full of images/portraits that were taken from private photographers websites. Some even taken from a professional photography magazine that I actually subscribe too! She was told no to show anyone because they don't own the rights to them but she showed me because she doesn't feel comfortable with this in her possession.
I guess her company is seeing a trend in a style of photography that is selling really well and this binder was basically given to her so that the photographers for her company can duplicate the same poses/ideas. Once the poses are achieved her company can start displaying/marketing the images they physically took because then they would have legal copyrights to them.
NO, it is not a copyright infringement to have tears from magazines.
Strictly speaking it is copyright infringement to make prints from the internet but as they are not being "publicly" displayed then I can't see anyone really complaining too much about the usage and it could be classed as a fair usage as they are being used for critic/education.
Many many photographers have tearsheets from mags on the walls of their studios for "inspiration" and will use them for ideas for their own images.
Most people do not try and duplicate the poses exactly. If they did so then that could be classed as an infringement, in fact I recall there was a case where someone copied verbatim an "iconic" shot and was sued.
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