Hello, all,

This is a note of caution to small historical societies with photo
collections.

In January of this year we received a call from a company in California that
said they wanted to purchase a photo from us for one-time use in a
promotional poster for our area. They were under a tight deadline and asked
if we could FedEx the photo to them with an invoice. I sent the invoice,
photo, and a photo use agreement form to them. We didn't receive payment -
after several months of hounding they sent us a copy of a check that they
said they would mail out to us. After another three months, they finally
sent payment and a sample of the poster (no agreement form). When we got the
poster and the flyer they included, we realized that they had taken our
image and produced a poster from it that they were trying to sell. Needless
to say, they did not sign and return a use agreement form!

They pulled this with another, neighboring historical society also. Now we
are trying to figure out what recourse we have.

Learn from our mistake - please don't send anyone a photo without a signed
use agreement and payment already in hand! If you'd like the name of the
company in question, please contact me off-list.

Thanks,
Erica

Erica S. Maniez
Museum Director, Issaquah Historical Society
425/392-3500
[log in to unmask]
www.issaquahhistory.org

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