[mgvh]

(If the info I need is already in some thread I can't seem to find, please point me to it...)
I am not a professional photographer, but I've been working as an enthusiast taking better pictures with my K-x. I am a teacher, and I've led some trips to Turkey, Greece, Israel, Jordan... and have taken pictures I want to be able to use in the classroom. (These are all Bible related sites.) My pics are good enough that I've been contacted by a Bible software company inquiring about licensing my pics, and I am really uncertain what this means or what I should be aware of.
Some things I know:

• These are not intended to be used as high-res photos for prints. They are likely to be resized down to 1000px max wide/high. I.e., they are for viewing on screen and used in PowerPoints.
• They are asking for a "one-time sale of rights." Before I ask them what this means, I wanted to have some background.
• Can I appropriately ask that I maintain rights to use my own pictures? (Or when you sell your rights, they are really no longer yours?)
• I am not primarily interested in the money here. (It's likely that a significant portion of compensation will be in credit with the company.) By having an arrangement for the pics, however, it increases my chances for obtaining a grant for the travel to go back and get more pics. So, what is reasonable compensation in a situation like this? (I don't know yet how many pics they want. I have 1000s, but I'm guessing they may be wanting 200-500 or so.)

Any and all help and suggestions will be appreciated. Thanks!

[tim60]

I do quite a lot of publishing as an academic. Text stuff.

Ask for their copyright agreement. Check whether you are giving sole rights to this buyer or whether they allow you to continue to have some rights, which could be for your private purposes, or for use by your organisation (such as for your classes, but also other things), or that they are asking for a non-exclusive right to use - which allows you to do anything you want with them - including to further sell them to someone else for a different use.

The other thing is whether you remain the copyright owner - that is - you gave them permission to use, but any further requests for use need to be directed to you, or whether they could give permission for secondary use of their product for purposes beyond the purposes stated on the media.

I have had a number of photos published. Some were the conference pictures of a professional association. No formal agreements there. The other was a picture that will be published in a book, which I gave permission for without payment because of the relationship with the author - who gave me the lens I used.

It would be worth you thinking about what you want protection from:
1. Someone stealing you work becasue of its financial value.
2. Someone stopping you using your work in other places you miht reasonably desire to use it.
3. Something in the moral rights area - such as someone using your pictures to make points with which you disagree (e.g. I note the religious use of the pictures now, and the possibility that might lead to a use which might offend you.)
4. And the benefit you could obtian through having your work seen by a broader audience (to which you have referred).

BTW: payment for academic work published is so small (when there is any payment which is unusual) that the tax paper work of accounting for it take more effort than the money is worth.
In the academic context the major function of the copyright release is for the publishing house to have documentation that the author asserts ownership of copyright and assignment of the copyright so that the publisher is no liable for improper use events.

[mgvh]

Thank you! That is very helpful.

[bigted]

tim60 has given you some great advice. I have been a columnist for a national and regional publication. In my case, our agreement was that they would publish it first and then I was free to do as I pleased. I could, if I wanted, offer anything they had published to anyone else (I never did). They paid me for each time they published a column and if they repeated a column they also paid me again (both publications were owned by the same company and sometimes a column was published in both publications). I did it for fun as I love to write - the pay was a bonus.

It was an incredibly light arrangement as I figured who would want to "steal" my stuff. Each column had a photograph but it wasn't something anyone could really use for other purposes. To be honest it never really crossed my mind to be concerned about someone stealing what I had created. Now that I am a little older, wiser and that technology had changed considerably I would now consider a much more formal agreement. At the very least you need to find out if you are giving them everything or just the right to use (one time or many times). Talk to them and get some clarification first and then you need to decide how much control you want to give up or a comfortable with.

As for compensation That depends on how much they are getting and your comfort level.

Congrats and all the best with reaching an agreement!

bigted

[mgvh]

@bigted: Thank you also! More good things to keep in mind. I'm pretty sure they will just want to do some flat, one-time fee, but I do want to make sure I can still use my own photos. I'm guessing my photos will be the type of thing they will simply add in to their existing package and promote as another feature, but they won't charge to offer it as a separate "module." Thanks again.

[Frogfish]

You might also want to ask them to ensure you are credited with the photos in their publication(s) / software.

[mgvh]

@frogfish: Another good thing to remember to ask about!