Michael Fryd
Veteran Member
If the image is being used in an editorial context, permission may not be needed.Why does the photographer get to use the image of the band and the clothing to promote his magazine without payment to the band or the clothing designer?
Suppose you are at a local public park, sitting on a park bench, minding your own business. In the USA, I don't need your permission to take your photo. Furthermore I don't need your permission to profit from the image by selling a print as Art, or by selling the print to a local newspaper. Your permission is not necessary in order to run the photo on the front page of the newspaper alongside an article on city's plans to remove the benches.
On the other hand, your permission would be needed to use the photo in an advertisement for the company that makes those benches.
The photographer generally owns the copyright to the image. This is not an affirmative right that lets him do whatever he wants with the image. All copyright ownership does is allow you to place certain restrictions on the reproduction/copying of the image.
If there are recognizable people in the image, they generally have various rights to their likeness, and can place certain restrictions on the use of the image. These rights are independent of copyright law, and even apply to images that are in the public domain (i.e. no copyright).
If there are trademarks in the image, then the trademark owner may also place certain restrictions on the image.
None of these rights are absolute. A copyrighted image can be copied without permission if the copying meets the "fair use" criteria. A person's control of their likeness generally is limited to preventing it from being used to promote goods and/or services, being used on a product, or used to defame the person. Trademark owners can prevent you from using their trademark in a way that might lead the pubic into thinking that this is an authorized use.
In addition to the above, their may be contractual limitations. When you buy a concert ticket, you agree to various terms. These terms may limit photography at the concert and/or what you can do with those images.
All in all, there may be multiple people who can place restrictions on an image. Any usage of the image must be careful not to violate any of their rights. The reason we get a model release is that it constitutes permission to use the model's likeness in the released manner.