Fans of both Taylor Swift and the music industry have praised the pop star over the last year, for actions such as pulling her catalogue from streaming services and for the open letter she recently sent to Apple Music regarding the company's royalty policy. Considering her appreciation of musicians' rights, some were surprised to hear about the contractual stipulations forced upon photographers working her concerts.
Jason Sheldon and several other cameramen that have worked at Swift's concerts responded to her defense of musical copyright by demonstrating that the performer doesn't extend the same rights to photographers at her shows. The paperwork for the "1989" tour and other Swift treks totally sidesteps paying for shots taken by outside photographers by declaring in the contract for the show that the performer and her agency have the right to use the photos is any "non-commercial" manner they see fit (a nebulous area, to be sure). Furthermore, the photographers themselves can only use the images in connection with the publication they're representing at the moment. Selling prints of your work to Swifties on the side? Forget about it.
None of this is all that shocking, as many performers have similarly draconic regulations about what you can do with media gathered at their performances (the legality of which is questionable). What IS more intense, however, is a further clause pointed out by Consequence of Sound:
"Firefly Entertainment, Inc., the Artist or the Related Entities may confiscate and/or destroy the technology or devices that contain the master files of the Photographs," reads Clause 5 in the form offered by Joel Goodman.
That's right. Swift and her legal team will literally destroy the hard drive where you're storing the photos. Be wary the next time you volunteer to shoot her in concert.
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