Re: Is there a lawyer in the room?

[krandall@world.std.com]

At 09:43 AM 7/12/99 -0500, you wrote:
>As someone who has entered his fair share of photographic competitions over
>the years, I always got kind of "stuck" when the fine print of the contest
>spoke about transferral of copyright over to some other organization. I can
>imagine that lots of peole might feel like Robert - it's _their aquarium_
>and _their photo_, so the copyright should also be _their's_.

>Is there a way that we can leave the copyright of the photos with the
>submitter yet still obtain the rights to publish/use the photograph in the
>ways I have previously described? 

Absolutely.  I'm not a lawyer, but I sell a lot of photos.  I _only_ sell
one time right of use. (though for a contest I might be willing to
relenquish more liberal rights to a non-profit educational organization)
Usually, since that is the N.A. standard, I sell first N.A. rights to
publish a photo.  As long as the use (or possible use) of the photo by AGA
are spelled out in the original contest guidelines, and the contestant
signs an entry form saying that they agree to those uses, I don't think
there is any problem.  Nor do I see any need for anyone to give up their
copyrights to a photo.  AGA doesn't need it, because AGA won't need to
transfer those rights to anyone else.  

Karen