Most of our clients have Photographers who do not want to do album production of any kind. That is why you have access to Digital Images or the Negatives.

Since Book Album Companies and AlbumArt are not dealing directly with the author of the work, the Photographer, and his resulting photographs, the copyright infringement issue comes up.

Different Book Albums handle the images different ways. Some totally change the images with special effects, blending text into the image, cropping, slicing images, changing images to B+W, Sepia or other color tones, etc.

Because of this reworking of the images and that AlbumArt or the client is not the copyright holder of the images a Usage Release is required. This prevents future copyright infringement issues to arise.

The Book Album Companies want a statement from the Photographer stating that is is OK for them to produce the album. Also we would want to be included in the Usage Release.

This is NOT a copyright transfer. This is permission to produce the album, or right to reproduce the images taken by the photographer using a particular Book Company. This would prevent the Photographer from suing either us or the Album Company at some point in the future, if they changed their minds about you using us to produce your book album. This is the same for all Digital Book Albums Companies. Traditional Matted Albums do not require the extensive reworking of the images and are not included in this request.

QUESTION: "Our contract stated the photographer would supply all images from the wedding to us 6 months after our wedding. The photographer knew I wanted to created a "magazine/book" style album. Do you still need a release from them?"

ANSWER: Unfortunately people change their minds, or say.."Well I didn't know you wanted to do that...."

What would prevent them from suing us for copyright infringement later?

Your contract with them does not involve us or the album companies... they could follow any course they or their attorneys choose.

So from a practical stand point the answer is yes... we need the signature.

Mainly the album companies deal directly with Photographers so it is not an issue. We are leading the new concept of helping Brides through this process. The Album Companies want assurance that no copyright infringement occurs.

Again it is not a copyright transfer or sale. The photographer retains his copyright over the images. The Release is a Usage Release stating that it is OK that you create a book album and any related offerings the album companies offers that you choose to have them produce for you. The photographer knows it and cannot sue later after they change their minds....

It should not be an issue with the photographer since ... "Our contract stated they would supply all images from the wedding to us 6 months after our wedding. The photographer knew I wanted to created a "magazine/book" style album."

I would be happy to handle this for you directly with the photographer if you like.... -Rick Taylor/AlbumArt

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