Image Usage on a Website

[STexan]

New to the forum and this is my first post and thanks in advance.

Lately, I've been refining my technique to capture high-value, digital photographs of trucks (18 wheelers) operating on roads and interstates in scenic areas and in front of key landmarks with ideal lighting angles and at ideal morning/afternoon times. This is speculative photography and my intent is to track down the vehicle owner and/or driver to sell prints or digital downloads by directing them to my website by means of mail, email and/or phone contacts. These images would be available for purchase (and visible with watermark) on my website by anyone who might find their way to the website.

NOTE These images will often have a carrier's logo/name readily visible on the trailer. Furthermore, some trailers may have another image/logo such as "Budweiser" on it (see below) but this is not a regular occurrence. The driver of the vehicle is always INdistinguishable. What makes the image valuable to the driver is being able to clearly see the carrier's name on the trailer, as well as the truck number in the image. A small handful of these images would be used for "marketing" of my service in displaying them (and the quality of my work) on my website for public viewing, while the bulk of the images would require a USDOT number and Truck Number search to find potential matches to view/purchase.

I am curious if some here might be able to shed some light on potential legal ramifications I may have directed towards me regarding images displayed on my website for public and private viewing such as privacy issues? Illegal "use" of trademark or logo? Illegal use of architectural landmark for profit? (Dallas Reunion Tower for instance). I am talking about the addition of several hundreds of photos every week where no contact (for waivers or permission) can be made "in the field" and this is purely speculative work.

To clarify, these are simply high-res photos of the typical trucks you see every day moving down any highway across America. Another scenario ... "JB Distributing" on the tractor, and a "Budweiser" logo on the trailer ... what are the considerations there? I would not be using the Budweiser logo to promote my business. However the Budweiser logo would be an incidental aspect of photographing a truck that belonged to JD Distributing.

Thanks.

[Mr. Knowitall]

The fact that logos and the like appear incidentally in a photograph does not mean that you have to license them from the owner. If that were the case, there are few places left in this country where you could take a picture without having to license or blur out trademarks.

[STexan]

Well, that's the way I see it, too. However, go to any stock photo web site such as shutterbug, and search "transportation" (or anything else for that matter) and see how many trucks or trains with any company name or logo that shows up ... the answer will be ZERO. In fact, try and submit any photo to a stock photo site that includes any company name or logo, and it will be rejected. The reason they give for why these are rejected is convoluted, but bottom line, they don't want to deal with "possible issues" later and choose to err on the side of caution.

Now, I'm not interested in dealing in "stock photos" but the issue that stands in the way of stock photos would seem to potentially affect any photo used on a public web site, wether for advertising, demonstration of work, or for making available to any potential client. Perhaps the major difference is selling "digital images" that can be used any number of ways and out of control of the initial provider vs. selling -prints- that can not really be used in any type of "illegal" manner.

[jk]

what you are doing is fine. As you said, with the stock photos they don't want to possibly get into a situation that might come about. They are being cautious to avoid something that might happen if the images were used in some way that could create a problem with the trademarks. What you are doing would not be using the TM for the purposes they are concerned with.