Stock Photos

Friends of my fiance I just met are getting into selling stock photos from someone they met in Thailand, they just got back from there I think its fishy. Just funny they way he was saying that my guy at the lab might own the rights to my photos cause he scanned them, any truth to that? He seen some of my work and was asking me to sell it through him via digital files or something. If I did get into selling photos it would be real prints, on real paper. Also I seen a Roman loranc print for like $ 12 on one of these stock photo sites, how do they get these pics are they stealing them? just curious how this whole stock photography works, this guy got me thinking and a bit worried about my guy stealing my shit, which I doubt he would do. Any info or experience on copyrights appreciated

Good Evening, Finny99,

When I worked with a St. Louis stock agency back in the 80's-90's, the split was 50-50 between the agency and the photographer. The photographer retained the copyright on all images and, indeed, returned dated transparencies from time to time. As far as I know that was standard practice for stock agencies. With the advent of digital imaging, I'm sure that the agencies have done a lot of adapting, but the basic principle of the photographer being the copyright-holder would, I assume, still be normal.

Konical