Natwerk Designs

If I bought the rights to some pictures of my daughter how do I make copies of them?

My wife took my daughter to get her pictures made professionally. When she bought the picture package they offered her the rights to the pictures. She bought them and now we need more copies. Wal-Mart says I need a paper saying I own the rights. They also said that it should be on the disk somewhere but I don't really know what I am looking for. The studio was Portrait Innovations. If you can help I would be greatly appreciative! Thanks!

Public Comments

1. Here's the deal. As a professional photographer I don't claim the rights but many do. What they're trying to do is force you to come to them for copies so they can make more money - that's it. If you have a disk make copies at home and print them yourself. This guy is very, very unlikely to sue you for copying the photos. Such a thing would make him look very bad and to stay in business he doesn't want to do that. If you have the paper that the photographer gave you assigning the rights to you you're doubly protected. Wal Mart is only protecting themselves from a suit that could occur in such a situation. Certainly you have a way to copy and print at home or a friend does so just do it that way and skip the middle man - Wal Mart.
2. Are you certain you and the photographer have the same understanding? You should have a written agreement stating you own the rights to the images and if shot digitally then you should should have a set of the images (on disk) so that you can make prints without the hassle of scanning prints. You need to talk to the photographer you hired and get a written document because without it there is no proof you have rights to reproduction of the images but only own the physical prints you bought from the photographer. Hope this helps. Mark