Photography Copyright

[dominiquejames]

The law says that if I photograph a basketball game, and I'm a freelance photographer (meaning, I'm not working full-time as a photographer for a company and they didn't assigned me to the shoot), I own the exclusive copyright to the photo image. A sportswear manufacturer comes up to me, and tells me that they want to use the photos I took of that basketball game for their major print ad worldwide release campaign. Won't the players in my photograph scream foul if all of a sudden their picture appears to be endorsing the brand? Do I need a model's release from the players for something like this? What is the scope, purpose, function, reason of my copyright? To what extent can I commercially use, exploit my photographs? In this case, how economically usable is the copyright for me as a photographer? Where and how does the concept of "fair use" apply or doesn't apply?

[de2]

i don't know much about philippine laws on copyright.

but as a photographer myself, my association always points me to these websites for better understanding on fair-use here in north america.

http://fairuse.stanford.edu/
http://www.benedict.com/Info/law/fairUse/fairUse.aspx
http://www.eff.org/IP/eff_fair_use_faq.html

hope these helps.

[dominiquejames]

Thanks for the excellent references!