I’ve been a big fan of “Dear old auntie Beeb” for as long as I can remember and I spent many happy days there as a staff member but I now find myself in an on going war with them.
When the BBC went entirely digital I hadn’t realised they were going to digitise the staff as well !
I have supplied photography to the BBC for twenty, maybe thirty, years and one of the attractions of working for them is that you meet interesting, educated people.
In fact I don’t believe that has changed; the people you encounter are almost always smart, well informed and civilised.
My problem lies within the administrative infrastructure that sits behind them and pays the bills.
Since the beginning of the year I have shot three separate jobs for the BBC.
Haven’t been paid for one of them !
After invoicing, as I would for any client, I was sent a raft of documentation to read, digest and sign.
Apparently, to now be an accredited freelance supplier (and get paid) you must now sign up to the Freelance Contract.
This document is one of those audacious “rights grabs” so beloved of corporate organisations desperate to control their resources and cash-in on extra revenue streams.
So they take away ALL your rights to YOUR pictures.
You agree (amongst other things) to:
Transfer the physical and intellectual property in the Photographs to the BBC and to waive your moral rights in respect of them.
You will not be entitled to retain copies of or to exploit the Photographs.
The BBC will not unreasonably withhold permission for you to exploit the Photographs for non-commercial purposes (e.g. portfolios, websites, and competitions).
Where permission is granted, copies will be provided to you by the BBC at cost …
They also have the rights to sell on the images worldwide without further recourse to me.
Well that may be all well and good were it not for the fact that the Dear Old BBC has ignored the fact that photographers own their copyright and simply demanding it from them without negotiation is not really acceptable.
Personally I have never sold on to another client a single image I have taken for the BBC, so this is (in my case at least) a moot point.
My main gripe with them though is the fact that I am expected to sign up to this agreement after I have completed the work and sent in my invoice.
No room for discussion.
Sign or don’t get paid.
This has become a question of principle with me now.
The BBC expects me to hand over everything and I will no longer have access to my pictures without first approaching them and begging them to release some copies back to me for my own use.
Why can’t they behave better ?
If they want me to sign up to something this should be negotiated before I undertake work not when I present them with the bill.
If they want to take my copyright, they should offer something in return to form the basis for that negotiation.
A “Contract” is a legally binding agreement between two or more parties that is mutually beneficial and is only valid if both the parties enter into it freely.
I don’t see much “mutual benefit” here.
And holding the threat of non-payment of my invoice unless I sign up to this is hardly being able to “enter into it freely”.
The battle continues, but by way of defiance I am putting up a little gallery of “BBC” pictures,