This is one of those situations where a $100 meeting with a lawyer can save you buku bucks in the long run.
We sat down with a lawyer before we started our business and he laid out a terms and conditions page that we get every client to sign. In short, we own the copyright to all our work, but we license usage rights to our clients. If clients wish to purchase the copyright, it’s an option.
As far as the right to privacy and filming uninformed guests goes, on our T&C page it specifically states that the client is wholly responsible for informing all guests we will be shooting at the event. We threw that in there because people have in the past freaked out about being recorded (never happened to us, but our lawyer said it has happened). We were told though that even if someone made a stink about that, there’s a certain expectation that there’s a lack of privacy at events such as weddings, since they are traditionally recorded in some form.
If you really want to do copyright correctly, get a lawyer to halp you figure out a boilerplate terms and conditions. But even if you don’t do that, spell it all out yourself in a contract.
