Who owns EA photos?

onwards&upwards

This is just something I thought was interesting,I am not after any actual advice just a discussion/thoughts.

A place I sold nearly 5 years ago is being advertised as a rental, but with the exact same EA photos I used to sell it back then. I sold it fully furnished and they are renting it out fully furnished so I presume nothing has been replaced even though some of the stuff was second hand when I bought it and none of it was high quality, but hey that’s private landlords for you!

I was just wondering if the original selling agents who actually took the photos, which are decent, would halve had any rights to them or any cause to complain to the new agent? It’s very lazy and does seem dishonest, but are the new agent actually doing anything wrong?

It’s a bit weird to see some of my stuff on rightmove again, the bedding in one photo is currently still in use in my spare room, maybe that’s a sign I should replace it! :rotfl:

HampshireH

Copyright is usully retained by the photographer.

Your contact would state otherwise

onwards&upwards

My contact?

So you think the first EA might have grounds to have words with the new EA.

davidmcn

onwards&upwards wrote: »

My contact?

Contract, that should have been, I think.

onwards&upwards wrote: »

So you think the first EA might have grounds to have words with the new EA.

Unless they've come to some other agreement, yes.

eddddy

Copyright is often owned by the photographer.

But if the photos were taken as part of the photographer's employment, copyright would normally be owned by the employer - i.e. the EA

If the photos were taken by a freelancer (some upmarket EAs use professional photographers for prestige properties), it depends on what the freelancer's contract says.


Are both EAs part of the same group? If so, they might share photos.

In theory, one EA might sell/give rights to another EA to use their photos, but if they're competitors, that seems unlikely.


Edit to add...

But obviously EAs monitor their local 'patch' on Rightmove very, very keenly - and almost certainly look back and cross-reference any properties they've previously dealt with.

So, if one EA was daft enough to steal another EA's photos, I suspect they would be found out quite quickly.

onwards&upwards

They don’t look to be connected, do you think they’d be at all interested if I emailed to let them know or would they just think i’m an oddball!

davidmcn

onwards&upwards wrote: »

They don’t look to be connected, do you think they’d be at all interested if I emailed to let them know or would they just think i’m an oddball!

If they actually cared about such things I'm sure they can monitor other agents' listings themselves.

eddddy

onwards&upwards wrote: »

They don’t look to be connected, do you think they’d be at all interested if I emailed to let them know or would they just think i’m an oddball!

In my experience, EAs are a competitive bunch, and like to 'take a pop' at their rivals.

So if an EA's photos really have been stolen, I suspect they'd enjoy telling the other EA to get them off Rightmove immediately - even more so, if it embarrassed them in front of their client.


(But as I say, it's a bit hard to believe that an EA would be daft enough to steal another EA's photos - but who knows?)

onwards&upwards

Well I just rang to tell them, as it doesn’t seem fair. Not just for the EA but for anybody looking too, the photos on rightmove show the property as it looked years ago, who knows what they might turn up to if they viewed!

davidmcn

onwards&upwards wrote: »

the photos on rightmove show the property as it looked years ago, who knows what they might turn up to if they viewed!

That's a completely different issue though - it's hardly unusual for landlords or agents to use (their own) old photos (given they often won't be able to access the property at all if there's currently a tenant in situ, never mind make the place look good).