Advice needed

[ecucamman]

My two pennyworth:

The model is not automatically expected to sign a release, this could be the subject of a seperate fee/negotiation for example, so you are on very rocky ground if you publish the material without one

Its highly unlikely any mainstream publisher would buy material without a release form, I also believe its down to you if they do and the model sues.

The photographer does indeed hold the copyright, but here we are talking about publication (which I believe in law is simply showing to a 3rd party), not whether PR owns the material.

The only options afaik, are

Ask a model to sign a form anyway:
Offer the girl extra to sign a form:
Forget it:

I did once read that if the model was booked by a professional through an agency, then it was implied that the work would be for possible publication, and so a release may not be required in law, but this would need checking

[tas]

I always get the model to sign the model release before paying them, once they have signed they get paid. If work like that then you wont end up in this situation again. As for your situation now, it should be ok if the material is for your own site etc, but as others have said i doubt many people will buy it from you if you do not have the model release.

[PR Models Ltd]

Thanks all for your advice, however at present the model is ignoring all forms of communication.

I know for a fact that the client will not buy without a release form. Guess I haven't much of a choice.

I will keep on asking her from time to time and see what the future holds.

It is true that legally I am the owner of the copyright, which is not enough unfortunately ;(

Thanks again to all

/Patrick

[Joe A]

Ruscle

My release is the same of yours.. Simon of gave me a copy of his to use, which includes the fee paid. If models don't declare their earnings to the tax man, at least we're covered.

The only problem is that a lot of models don't stay at the same address for ever, so the address we have could be usueless

[Peter]

When I had my random tax investigation earlier this year, the inspector commented on the fact that I'd included a paragraph in the release stating that all models were responsible for paying any taxes due on fees paid, and indemnified (your name here) against any charges arisinf from said fees.

he said it was a good job i'd included that, but I didn't press him further on it.

May be a good idea to put such a clause in your release if you haven't already got one.