Real Estate Photography image rights

Michael Fryd wrote:

Brett8883 wrote:

Michael Fryd wrote:

Brett8883 wrote:

Michael Fryd wrote:

Brett8883 wrote:

...

Those other cases are good questions (the last one is a pretty straight forward no, however) but that’s not what the OP was asking. He was asking if the realtor could use the photos on a website to market the home. That’s what prompted my response of “that’s the reason they hired you in the first place.” If the OP had asked any of your other questions my response would have been different.

I think the OP's question was not a straightforward case.

The first question to be answered is whether the Realtor® has the right to use the images to market the property. I think we all agree that the answer should be yes.

Next is the question as to whether that includes the Realtor put the images on his website in order to market the home. I still think we all agree that the answer should be yes.

Is it still OK if the Realtor hires someone else to build the web site? I think most of us are on board here that the answer is still "yes".

The OP's issue was that the person hired to build the website was not adding much value, yet he was being paid a significant sum. As far as the OP was concerned, the value of the web site was primarily in the photos, yet the payment breakdown between photographer and web person, did not reflect that.

The OP wanted to know if it was OK for a web designer to use the photos if the web designer was overcharging for his services.

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I think the real issue here is that the OP missed an opportunity for a profitable add-on sale.

Imagine that you are hired to take wedding photos and the contract calls for you to deliver digital files. The client has the right to get them printed where ever he wants. You might be upset if the client ends up having them printed from a low quality service that charges five times what you would have charged for high quality prints. it's annoying to lose a sale like that, but it is usually within the clients right to make a bad decision when purchasing additional services.

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Of course an interesting question is whether the Realtor is allowed to put the images on the Multilist. Multilist images tend to propagate to Zillow and other assorted services. Those images may stay around for decades, and can easily reappear the next time the property goes on sale.

If you are going to allow the images to appear on the multilist service, then you cannot reasonable expect use of the images to stop once the property sells.

Well we agree on pretty much every front.

The multi list service is an interesting case.