Threat of legal action over charity calendar

[andymonk]

Wondered if anyone had any advice to offer please. I'm being threatened with legal action over a "Calendar Girls" style horse riding calendar I am creating for charity.

We borrowed a horse from a stables in North Yorkshire to do a shoot for the calendar. The stables (unbeknown to me at the time) gave us one of their customers horses for an hour, after asking the owners permission to do so of course.

Almost twelve months on and the girl who owns the horse has just emailed me telling me not to use any of the photographs and to remove all photographs with her horse on from the website, Facebook, and the calendar, or she will take legal action against me! She's also been posting threatening messages on our facebook pages.

The calendar is being printed right now. All proceeds are going to Multiple Sclerosis and Leukodystrophy research.

What to do? There is no law that I know of saying you can't take photographs of animals, unless they are on the owners own private property, in which case you need the owners permission, but these were taken on land owned by the stables and anyway, she did give her permission in the first place, though it has turned out that she wasn't told of the nature of the shoot.

The photos are at www.hottotrot.org/jessejames.htm


andy

[robski]

If you don't have a signed model release form she has you over a barrel. The horse is her property and you need her consent if the photo is being used for commercial purposes. Check out some the stock photography websites which go into the legals in depth.

I don't think saying it's for charity will score you any points.

Yes you can take the photo the problem comes when you try to publish it.

By the way did the model sign a model release form to say the photo could be used and if and how she would be paid ? she could comeback and ask for a share of the profits.

[andymonk]

Thanks for your reply.

No paperwork at all! Not for any of the shoots. I'm a chancer. Everything went fine til this girl contacted me. There's always one isnt there. There were no fees paid to anyone, the girls all did it for charity. I think the easiest thing is going to be to do another shoot and scrap the photos from the last one

[Taurid]

I'm not sure about the laws where you are. They will be different wherever you go. But you said she had given permission. Verbal permission can be deemed legal in some cases. Just as legal as written permission in certain cases and again in certain places. It could also be that the onus was on her to ask what the shoot was for exactly. I stress could be. If I were you, I'd contact a good lawyer and ask them.
BTW, I would love to have one of the calendars. They sound great.

[andymonk]

In the interests of a speedy conclusion I've emailed the millionaire property developer now and told him that i will remove all photos of his daughter's horse so as not to cause any deliberate offence, and I'm going up to Thirsk a week on Thursday, weather permitting, to do another shoot.

Anyone have a horse we can borrow?

btw. You can buy the calendar online at hottotrot.org

[dorsetman]

I cant comment on your case but to take you to court would cost a great deal of money. The fact that you are doing this for charity and she is being a spoilt brat cowbag is disgusting. She sounds plain nasty. I wonder if she looks like an ugly Thelwell horse.

For the record i think its a brave and amazing thing your doing. I will be buying one of your calendars and it wont be for the horse.

[miketoll]

Unfortunately millionaire property owners have the money and are likely to go ahead with court action. If you lived closer Andy you could borrow a horse but Yorkshire is a long way from Suffolk!

[andymonk]

Thanks all!

We have a brand spanking new photo of Jesse for the calendar now, and there are some snapshots from the day on Jesses page - hottotrot.org/jessejames.htm

Tulip, the horse in the calendar photo, looks uncannily like Flame, the horse that all the kerfuffle was over!

To anyone who orders a calendar - if you mention 'Jesse James' when you order, we'll include a signed 10" x 8" photo of Jess from the last shoot when we send your calendar, but don't tell anyone just incase.

[andymonk]

"Thank you for the calendar. It's stunning and even better that you've used every day (nextdoor) beautiful girls and not models."

There's still time to buy a 2012 calendar from www.HotToTrot.org and have it delivered for Christmas. Or buy one through ebay (search for hot to trot calendar)

There are 12 big A3 size glossy photos and 76 smaller ones of the 16 Hot To Trot Calendar girls.

100% of the purchase price goes to Multiple Sclerosis and Leukodystrophy research.

My wife, Gwen, has had progressive MS for 18 years now, so we really do appreciate your support.

Best wishes

Andy Monk

[Fixer]

My Brother in-law has just been diagnosed with leukaemia so was ready to get one of your calendars, but a lot of people have been duped out of money on this forum before so I just googled “Threat of legal action over charity calendar” you have been very busy getting this across and just before Christmas too when people at their most vulnerable.