Selling Brewer photos (not an advertisement)

[jerichoholicninja]

I have a bunch of nice 8x10's that I've taken at Brewer games over the past couple of years and I've decided to start selling them. Is this legal? Do I owe the Brewers anything? I took them all myself so there shouldn't be any copyright issues, correct?

[JimH5]

I believe there are licensing issues with selling things with major league logos, and the MLBPA also has licensing issues when you sell items with player images. Card companies have contracts, as does Photofile.

 

That's also why t-shirt makers have to be cautious when producing things with images owned by others.

 

Good luck. I hope others will confirm or refute my opinion.

[jerichoholicninja]

I did a little more research and it seems like there will be no issues with logos or player likenesses. I did read that the ticket states the terms and conditions for photography and video. One person said that photos and videos can't be sold and another said that just video can't be sold. I checked the Brewers website and the A-Z section is awaiting 2011 information so that was no help. I'll go find a ticket from last year and read what it says.

[Point Beer Is Best]

I would say that I'm reasonably sure that this is illegal. Ask yourself, if this were legal wouldn't there be a whole industry of amateurs selling photos they took at games? Have you ever seen an 8x10 of a player for sale without the league or team logo placed in the corner? It's totally fine to take these for your own enjoyment, but I have to think that the league, teams, union and players themselves would have a huge issue with someone making a profit off of their likeness without consent to do so.

[jerichoholicninja]

I couldn't find a Brewers ticket around but I checked about ten other MLB teams' rules on photography and Pittsburgh is the only one I found that explicitly forbids selling of photographs. Everything else I found was rather vague or only forbade selling video.

[jerichoholicninja]

I would say that I'm reasonably sure that this is illegal. Ask yourself, if this were legal wouldn't there be a whole industry of amateurs selling photos they took at games? Have you ever seen an 8x10 of a player for sale without the league or team logo placed in the corner? It's totally fine to take these for your own enjoyment, but I have to think that the league, teams, union and players themselves would have a huge issue with someone making a profit off of their likeness without consent to do so.

Actually yes I have found plenty of photos without the MLB logo on it.

[Funketown]

My gut tells me this is definitely illegal. I highly recommend you do not do this unless you receive written permission from someone with Major League Baseball. I wouldn't want to see you rack up some fines for copyright infringement for this relatively innocent endeavor!

[JimH5]

I am most certain that whatever rule applies for one team applies for all teams. Licensing is a leaguewide thing--it's not done on a team-by-team basis..

[rwa12]

I would agree with Jim. I do not believe that teams set the policy individually, if it is illegal for one, it will be illegal for all. I'm not sure how big your operation would have to be to garner attention. If you were selling the photos offline, I would think it would go largely unnoticed. I would guess that the problems would arise from pictures circling the internet (ebay, etc.)

[dadofandrew]

Technically illegal, but unless you take ads out or E-bay them, you can probably slip under MLB's eyes.

[jerichoholicninja]

I'm going back and forth on this. It seem illegal but this would be such a small operation I don't think it would be worth MLB's time to do anything about it. I guess it depends how moralisticly I want to be.

[1992casey]

If it turned out to be illegal, Brewerfan obviously wouldn't be able to allow you to use the Trading Post to peddle the pictures. Of course, exploring the legality is certainly a topic that's appropriate on the board.

[Invader3K]

I would think your best bet would be to sell them through a local collector's shop of some sort.

[1992casey]

I would think that a collectors' shop would very likely be aware of the legality of selling your photos. http://forum.brewerfan.net/images/smilies/smile.gif

[Invader3K]

I don't know if they would do it or not, but usually money talks in these matters.