A CM friend of ours said that there is an official written policy on any pictures taken while on their property or of their property that says to sell them you must have written permission. Entering their property binds you to adhere to all of their policies whether you read them or not.
That said, I doubt they take any action against small time stuff. It is just not worth their while if you are selling a print for charity. If you set up a store front to sell them, you might get attention. Be careful not to open up the school to liability though.
Kevin
There's a lot of various legal concepts that are being mixed and blurred in this thread and I'd like to try and pull some of them apart...
1) WDW is private property. As such, any guest that is there stays "at the pleasure" of Disney. Anyone can be asked to leave for any reason. This would include photographers that Disney thinks is trying to engage in commercial photography without their permission.
2) Don't confuse trademarks with copyrights. They are two very different things with their own set of legal rules. A "trademark" is something that is used to identify a product or company (ex. three circle Mickey head, "Disney" in the Disney font, Mickey, Pooh, Cindy's Castle, SE, etc.). A copyright protects a creative work from being copied or used in a derivative work. Only trademarks can be "lost" if not defended against abuse by their owners, there is no such requirement for copyrights.
3) Copyright law gives the rights holder an exclusive right to profit from their work. Short of pirating someone's copyrighted material, copyright violation is not illegal. It is not a criminal offense, it's a civil matter. Using a photo from WDW without permission in a book is not "illegal", but it could be actionable in court. Law does allow the rights holder to take you to court to seek damages if they choose. Likewise, it is not "illegal" to allow someone to slip and fall on your property. But if that happens, civil law allows them to file suit against you
if they choose and it's up to them to try and prove that you were negligent in some way.
However, copyright law is not exactly black-n-white. The nature of the usage, the amount of the material used, and how the usage affects the owner's commercial interest in the work are major factors that are weighed in courts when determining copyright violations. Me deciding to sell my own souvenir WDW coffee table photo book would be viewed in court a lot differently than some photos from WDW used in a Photoshop tutorial book. A judge/jury would be a lot more likely to award damages to Disney for my souvenir book than it would for the PS book. Securing a copyright or trademark is one thing, proving violations of those rights in a court is another beast entirely.
4) "So who owns the copyrights to my WDW vacation photos?" The answer is "you do". But your rights may be in conflict with Disney's in some cases, if you decide to use them for commercial purposes. The smart thing to do would be to try and get Disney's permission first, but if you don't it's only an issue if Disney objects and opts to seek damages in a civil court. As mentioned above, there is no risk to Disney if they allow you to include a photo of WDW in your book without permission.
Also, Disney hasn't copyrighted and trademarked
everything in the parks. Major landmarks and architecture, characters... sure. But they can't lay claim to every bench, store interior, tree, etc.
