Taylor Swift relaxes rules on tour image use
Singer Taylor Swift has relaxed the “restrictive” rules on image use for photographers covering her 1989 World Tour.
The National Press Photographers Association (NPPA) said on Tuesday, July 21, that the group and Swift’s representatives have come up with a new agreement for photographers covering the global tour, which runs until December this year.
Swift recently faced criticism from both Irish national newspaper The Irish Times, which refused to publish pictures from a performance in Dublin on June 29, and UK-based freelance photographer Jason Sheldon, who wrote an open letter criticising her contract requirements.
Restrictions laid out in Swift’s contract apparently included a ‘one-time-only’ image use limit, which elapsed at the end of 2015, and a requirement for written consent from Swift and her agent for any other use of a photo.
“Swift reserves the ‘perpetual, worldwide’ right to use the photographs for publicity and promotion,” The Irish Times wrote in a blog post, published after Swift’s performance in Dublin.
Brenda Fitzsimons, the newspaper’s deputy editor, said at the time: “The terms and conditions of the contract are exceedingly restrictive and just not feasible for a working newspaper and website.”
The new contract, published on the NPPA website, makes clear that photographers are able to use photos more than once.
It also shows that copyright is not taken away from photographers or publications.
According to the NPPA’s statement, the group was discussing what action it might take in response to the previous contract when it was contacted by members of the singer’s public relations team, who “made it known” that they were open to discussions.
The draft contract has been supported by 14 other media groups including the Associated Press, the American Society of News Editors and the Society of Professional Journalists.
Mickey Osterreicher, general counsel for the NPPA and a counsel at law firm Barclay Damon, said that Swift “should be commended” for showing her concern “not only for the rights of musicians but for the rights of the photographers and organisations that cover her concerts”.
Phil Sherrell, partner at law firm Bird & Bird, told WIPR that artists are “understandably keen” to control their public persona as far as possible in an “increasingly image-obsessed world”.
“Taylor Swift seems to have acted sensibly here to avoid a public backlash, which has strong echoes of past disputes,” Sherrell said, referencing previous rows between England’s top football division, the English Premier League, and sports photographers.
“From a legal perspective, the concert/match organiser has the ability to control the venue and so can try to impose restrictive terms on photographers, if they wish. Equally, they depend in part on the oxygen of publicity for the continuing success of their ‘products’ and one would therefore expect a sensible commercial resolution to be possible in most cases, as has happened here,” he added.
Taylor Swift could not be reached for comment.
