Wedding photographer Jamie Wolfer breaks down a contract clause that gives photographers perpetual, worldwide rights to use your images for any purpose, modify them with AI, and sublicense them. She warns the broad language can be abused and advises couples to redline contracts, explicitly ban AI editing, and limit usage rights.
Client hereby grants a provider a non-exclusive, perpetual, worldwide, non-transferable, irrevocable right and license to publicly display, publicly perform, exhibit, transmit, broadcast, reproduce, record, photograph, digitize, modify, alter, edit, adapt, create derivative works, exploit, sell, rent, license, use, permit others to use, or otherwise exploit visual materials and derivative works thereof, including any client likeness incorporated therein, in any medium or format, whether now existing or hereafter created, for any business purpose of provider or its sub-licensees. Without further consent or additional consideration from client. What? They have access to your likeness forever and ever. Amen. And they can do whatever they want with it, including their sub-licensees. Which is why when we're running into issues like AI photo editing, if it's not in the contract, if it's not written in or baked into this, if you do not redline some of these things because people you can mark up these contracts and send them back and say I'm not signing this. You can request for things like. No AI editing to be used on our photos at all whatsoever. And while sections like this do read very intensely, the spirit of it tends to be we want to be able to use your photos to advertise on our Instagram, on our website, etc. Not perpetually, not however much you want, not re-edited over and over and over again as many times as you want to. We need to kind of rein this in just a wee bit, especially in a heavily digital and heavily AI saturated day and age. I want some more protection around you.
