Selling WDW Photos

[allie5]

Are there any copyright reasons regarding submitting Disney photos to image libraries (Alamy for example)???

Has anyone ever sold any pictures taken at WDW?

Just curious more than anything as I dont have any nearly good enough to submit!

 

[photo_chick]

That is a good question. I am pretty sure that the castle is protected, as well as the major attractions. I know they have some patent roses in WDW, they are likely protected as well. Many professional fireworks shows are also protected, I would expect Disney's to be as well. Anyone know the actual rule on this?

I know you can't sell or submit for stock photo collections any that have the characters in them.

 

[mla973]

I believe this topic has come up on the boards, and the answer has been that anything in a non-public, recognizable place is copyrighted. (Maybe I'm not wording that right.) i.e. Photos of the castle, resorts, etc. Anything that looks like it was taken at a Disney Park or on Disney property.

I have seen a photo of a family reading a Dissey park map on a stock photo site....

 

[ukcatfan]

Coming from a CM friend that had this topic covered in a training session, absolutely no images taken of anything on Disney property is allowed for sale unless you have written premission from them. They only way to get that is to have a royalty agreement. So, unless you plan on doing something like a book, they are not going to give you the time of day to give you permission.

If there is nothing that connects the image to Disney, then I don't think you need to worry. Also, if it is just a stock photo submission, you should not have much to worry about. Probably the worst thing to happen would be for Disney to tell the stock photo place to pull the photo. If someone offered to buy the rights to one of yours, then you might have a problem. You also are not allowed to sell prints of any on property photos, but there are people on these boards that do and to my knowledge have not had the hammer come down on them. I personally would not risk it with Disney's infamously ruthless legal department.

Kevin

 

[manning]

They have the right to come after you legally and if they think it is worth it they will. They are one of the more agressive companies.

 

[allie5]

They have the right to come after you legally and if they think it is worth it they will. They are one of the more agressive companies.

Oh I can well believe that.

My first job straight out of college was designing the graphics for kids clothes. The owner of the company had a few Disney Licences. One time, we used Minnie on a girls T shirt and he was sued by Disney as he only had a licence to use Minnie on PJs!!

Interesting stuff guys thanks!!

 

[photo_chick]

Coming from a CM friend that had this topic covered in a training session, absolutely no images taken of anything on Disney property is allowed for sale unless you have written premission from them. They only way to get that is to have a royalty agreement. So, unless you plan on doing something like a book, they are not going to give you the time of day to give you permission.

If there is nothing that connects the image to Disney, then I don't think you need to worry. Also, if it is just a stock photo submission, you should not have much to worry about. Probably the worst thing to happen would be for Disney to tell the stock photo place to pull the photo. If someone offered to buy the rights to one of yours, then you might have a problem. You also are not allowed to sell prints of any on property photos, but there are people on these boards that do and to my knowledge have not had the hammer come down on them. I personally would not risk it with Disney's infamously ruthless legal department.

Kevin

I contribute to iStockphoto and they have pretty strict copyright rules and review things pretty well. Though some things do get through. It is likely that any images that are of recognizeable parts of the World would not even make it through the screening process at most reputble stock photography places.

 

[MICKEY88]

when my daughter did the college program I had made a book of 8x10s disney photos for her to get autographs of the characters, {she worked in costuming for the main st parade}

several characters asked where she got the book, and then asked if she thought I would sell them one..

I contacted Disney legal dept. and asked if it would be OK to do so. they told me that I could sell them to cast members at a reasonable price, but they also made it quite clear that if I overcharged the cast members or if I started selling the books anywhere else and they found out, they would hunt me down and prosecute for copyright infringement...

 

[Groucho]

Supposedly one or two of the larger free photo storage sites on the net recently had a bunch of Disney photos removed... I remember some talk here about it a couple months ago or so. I think Smugmug was one. I would guess it was because these sites allow you to sell copies of any photo via Snapfish or whatever.

 

[Master Mason]

I don't think it was smugmug. All of mine are still there with no problems and I didn't see any anouncement.

 

[ukcatfan]

I am pretty sure that Photobucket was involved. I think the key things that were getting removed were copyrighted images and not necessarily personal photos. I believe that the entire folders were deleted when something was found and by association some peoples photos were removed. I also think I remember that naming your folders or actual images with Disney in the name put you in the spotlight. I have a folder with WDW in the name and it was not touched.

Kevin

 

[sk8belle]

It was Photobucket. I have a few folders with "Disney" in the name, but they were left alone. Also, none of my images were removed, though some were of face characters, and the file names included the character's name. So it seems to be pretty hit and miss as to what gets deleted and what doesn't. Knock wood, I seem to have flown under the radar.

 

[jann1033]

ok not to start trouble but how is removing photos you took not illegal to do? if disney owns it just cause you took it on their property, wouldn't they have to post that somewhere? ie something to the effect that any photos taken on property can only be taken with permission of disney...not seeing how they can take possession of family photos, whether great aunt emma buys a copy or not and if they can't take possession of it/ claim ownership of it how can they delete it?
plus they encourage photo taking via all those kodak moment photo signs, ie i believe there is one with the castle as a backdrop, wouldn't that be implying permission to take a photo with the castle????......

 

[ukcatfan]

ok not to start trouble but how is removing photos you took not illegal to do? if disney owns it just cause you took it on their property, wouldn't they have to post that somewhere? ie something to the effect that any photos taken on property can only be taken with permission of disney...not seeing how they can take possession of family photos, whether great aunt emma buys a copy or not and if they can't take possession of it/ claim ownership of it how can they delete it?
plus they encourage photo taking via all those kodak moment photo signs, ie i believe there is one with the castle as a backdrop, wouldn't that be implying permission to take a photo with the castle????......

Your ticket basically says that you agree to all terms and conditions of WDW while there. You can get a detailed copy if you want, but it is probably a multi-day read. As for stuctures, they are already covered by US law. You cannot sell an image of any private structure without permission.

They want you to take and spread as many pictures as you can take. They do not want you to make any money off it.

Kevin

 

[jann1033]

Your ticket basically says that you agree to all terms and conditions of WDW while there. You can get a detailed copy if you want, but it is probably a multi-day read. As for stuctures, they are already covered by US law. You cannot sell an image of any private structure without permission.

They want you to take and spread as many pictures as you can take. They do not want you to make any money off it.

Kevin

veering way ot....and just hypothetically
i was more wondering how they can go to someone's online album who as far as they know do not have any intentions of selling a photo and remove those photos without permission when they encouraged/allowed/gave permission for you to take them in the first place. I wonder if it wouldn't be challenged since they put up the signs encouraging photos and tell you when you can not take photos( ie cop) i don't see how that isn't implying unless they say otherwise, you can take photos anywhere it is not expressly stated you can't( or they would tell you you couldn't take them at all ie like some places, all photography is be outlawed like art museums, etc )..... i can understand them stopping publication of a book containing disney photos but they still don't own those photos, they own the rights to the character, whatever in the photo...so i don't think they would own the actual photo or be allowed to destroy it. so i can understand( although it is overboard imo) them not letting you sell it but removing it from your personal collection is something else and i bet could be challenged by someone with deep enough pockets.

 

[ukcatfan]

It is actually not Disney removing the photos, it is the service provider(i.e. Photobucket, Flickr, etc.). Disney legal likely sent a cease and desist notice to the provider stating that copy written material was found on their website and that they needed to remove it or they would be sued. To make Disney happy, they did a broad sweep and deleted anything that could pose a problem. They are entitled to do this as part of your user agreement with them. Unless it can be sold from the website, then Disney could care less if you are displaying photos taken inside their property. The service provider is simply covering all of their bases b/c nobody wants a lawsuit against Disney. Look how long the Pooh case with SSI has been going on! I don't think somebody like Photobucket has pockets deep enough to go head to head with Disney, so they caved quickly and deleted everything they could find. The Mouse House Legal Department is widely feared in the corporate world.

Kevin

 

[Groucho]

As far as copyright infringement is concerned, you're guilty until proven innocent.

Come to think of it, there are a lot of things like that nowadays...