Legal Question in Business Law in New York

Depends on the term of your contract with the agency and the usual and customary standards of the trade.

Your possible action would depend on who owns the copyrights for the photos (you or the agency). To some extent, it would matter if the shoot took place within the last 90 days. If you own the copyrights and the shoot happened within the past 90 days then you may have an immediate course of action! Otherwise, if you own the copyrights but the shoot took place more than 90 days ago, you would need to execute a couple of steps to get you to a point where you can assert your position.

My office has a special offer for LawGuru users where we can conduct a limited review of who may own the copyrights to the photos and then plan for a course of action. The review of this would cost $198. To take advantage of this limited time offer please go to:

http://thelegalist.wix.com/roman-fichman-esq-and-assoc/lawguru2

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I agree with the others here. You first need to establish exactly who has rights to the photo. The default is the photographer and everyone else would get an implied license to use the photo for its intended purpose. The model, for example, would be able to use the photo for her book, self promotion, etc. She would not be able to sell it for a commercial venture.

It is possible that if you were working under a written agreement with the Agency that they may have acquired the rights under some work-for-hire / assignment language in that contract, which is quite common.

I suggest that you discuss it over with a lawyer in private. If you would like to discuss further over a free phone consult, feel free to contact me anytime that is convenient.

Kind regards,

Frank

www.LanternLegal.com

866-871-8655

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DISCLAIMER: this is not intended to be specific legal advice and should not be relied upon as such. No attorney-client relationship is formed on the basis