Photo slides of people… can they be sold if they are not your photos?

[Sigilini]

Newbie question:

I have heard Ryanne talk about selling slides (photo). I picked up a hole box of slides at a yard sale and there are pictures there of 70’s girls in bikinis. No naked people. And lots of family travel photos.

I am sure I can sell them but what about the person that buys them? Are they allowed to reproduce and sell them publicly? Don’t they need a model release?

Thank you in advance for all your help and input.

[Sharyn]

You can certainly sell them, no problem. I don’t know the legal part of whether the buyer can use them for publishing.

I was recently at an auction with slides (and I did buy a box lot, but haven’t listed them yet). Prior to bidding on one of the boxes, the auctioneer stated that these photos/slides were royalty free and could be used for whatever. Now, I don’t know that he knows the ins and outs of the law either. Certainly, general photographs of locations and buildings and whatnot would be fine. I don’t know if I believed him about the photos of people.

[Sigilini]

Thanks Sharyn, my thoughts exactly. I listed the ones that were flowers and animals and some people in a public place. But the photos that I have not listed are modeling photos of sexy girls, nothing graphic, just swimsuit stuff. Let’s see if any other Scavenger Life peeps have any opinions on this.

[AdventureE]

These links might be beneficial for anyone selling pictures.

https://pages.ebay.com/help/policies/signatures.html

https://pages.ebay.com/help/sell/copyrights.html

http://corporate.findlaw.com/litigation-disputes/practitioner-s-guide-to-california-right-of-publicity-law.html

[Jay]

I guess I’m confused what the question is. You don’t want to sell the slides in case someone tries to copyright them? That’s between them and the copyright laws. You can legally sell them as objects.

[Sigilini]

Thank you Jay, I think I was confused about my question to begin with. I just felt responsible for the pictures so that someone else does not abuse them in some way. I don’t care to personally have any ownership of the items. I want to sell them. It was just feeling some responsibility for the ladies that were in them…. if that makes any sense at all.

• This reply was modified 8 years, 5 months ago by Sigilini.

[Jay]

If you feel weird about them, dont sell them. But theres no way you can control what happens to the photos once they leave your hand.

But in my mind, there’s nothing shameful about girls in bikinis.

[AdventureE]

I would offer to consider as to whether you would want a picture of you or someone close to you wearing a bikini or skimpy bathing suit sold online. What if those pictures where taken when pictures were just keepsakes? What if the people in the pictures would not want to be put on the internet wearing a bikini because the pictures were meant to just mark a moment in time?

[Sigilini]

Yes, I can see it both ways. It does boil down to the ethics/moral issue: These girls were obviously modeling and the pix look like the kind of shots you do for your modeling portfolio. But these girls did not know about the internet and the guy that sold me the box might not have remembered all that was in there (the box was tucked away back in the garage all dusty and I was stockpiling a bunch of stuff together so he might not have noticed it). While it is perfectly legal to sell the pix, and as much as I would like to sell them (which is why the question even came up) I will wait until I can have a better understanding of this issue.

Next time I buy 35mm slides I will try to get a better info from the person that is selling them, especially if people are involved.

[antarestar]

I’ve been thinking about this since I read this thread yesterday morning. It’s not that wearing a bikini is shameful, it’s more the commodification and objectification of women’s bodies. The stripping of a woman’s humanity until she is only a body that others feel entitled to.
With all of the sexual harassers in the news, I can see why this might be a fraught topic.

[Zach]

40 years later, even if these end up reproduced and posted online, chances are no one is going to recognize these women unless they are celebrities. If the photos were nudes and obviously meant for private use, then I would destroy them. However, these sound fairly tame. Do you think some woman is going to get fired from her job because a decades old photo of her in a bikini is posted online?

Sell the photos, make some money, and don’t worry about it.

[Inglewood]

If you look past the subject matter, you are not responsible for what the end user does with the item.

If you sell magazines, books, music, movies, etc and someone decides to pirate them or re-produce parts of them without consent, it is not your issue – they are the end-user using the material improperly.

[Sigilini]

Thanks you for all your valuable feedback.

My mind was SO uneasy with the selling of these pictures that I just could not bring myself to do it. I actually listed them, had someone watching them within minutes of listing, and then deleted the listing.

They are very tame by today’s standards but still, I figured my peace of mind was worth not selling them. Maybe when I get more seasoned I will think differently.

When I was younger I had pictures done for some photo shoots and they were tame but on the sexy side… would I want them sold on the internet today without my permission? It would not kill me but likely would make me unhappy. The seller would not be wrong for selling them but I would hope that they would consider my feelings in the matter.

NOTE TO SELF: The next time I get 35mm slides, ask the seller about them to be sure there is no issue.

[kaninekleenup]

Well, obviously this thread is useless without pictures…….

[Retro Treasures WV]

That’s the beauty of this self-employed business. You have the CHOICE to sell or not sell. Imagine if you were working for someone else’s store and they handed you that box and told you to list them. That could eat you up and your only option would be to quit if you stood by your standards. In this case, just throw them in the trash and move on with life. If it is that much of a conflict, just toss them and move on with life.

Don’t compromise yourself. Set your standards and live by them. You’ll be much happier.

[Author]

Posts