Some of you may have noticed some photos of our wedding on Juice, The Dropbox.  I put them up there because I figured you guys may want to snag them, which I have full rights to do under my contract with the photographer.  Part of our deal was that we would receive a DVD with all of our pictures, in high resolution, and we could do with them as we please as long as we weren’t selling them.

So today, Jackie and I decided we were finally going to fill some frames we got as wedding gifts with said photos.  We had them quickly printed at Walgreens, and when we arrived to pick them up we were greeted by a smiling Walgreens employee who promptly asked if we had a waiver from the photographer to print these photos.

Huh?

After asking a couple questions, it became clear that we had to drive all the way home, dig up our photographer’s contract and drive back to Walgreens.  When we got back, we were helped by the Assistant Manager.  I asked him a few questions:

When did this policy start?

We’ve always had it.

How do you know they are professional photos?

We can tell by looking at them.

What happens when my friends and family try to print these photos?

You’ll have to give them a copy of the release.

This seems kind of ridiculous.

Well, it’s the law.  We just want to sell photos, but we have to protect the photographers who make them because that’s their livelihood.

I just had to nod.

It is fairly obvious that this is pure legal bullshit on the part of Walgreens.  I mean, had I actually been printing something without permission, how easy would it be for me to get around it?  First of all, I could have just said that I took those photos.  They would have no way to prove otherwise.

Secondly, what’s stopping me from typing the following release letter?

To Whom It May Concern:

I hereby authorize Brian Lindenau to print any of my photos.

Sincerely,

Theodore Roosevelt

I mean, they don’t even know who took the photograph.

This seems like this is an issue that could be easily handled by a simple checkbox, similar to what Facebook asks you: “I certify that I have the right to distribute this picture and that it does not violate the Terms of Use.”

It might save everyone some time and headache, and would be equally toothless.

For now, I guess I’ll just print my photos at a place that doesn’t place arbitrary legal barriers in front of me.