Code of Best Practice

BAPLA believes that the well-being and robust functioning of the photographic industry is greatly supported by BAPLA and its members committing to certain principles in the conduct of their business.

These principles require that BAPLA and its Members deal courteously with each other, their clients, their photographers, in the best interest of our industry.

A written undertaking to abide by this Code of Best Practice is a condition of membership of the Association.

Any Member who is deemed by the Best Practice Committee and the Executive Committee to have acted in deliberate contravention of this Code or is found by a Court to have acted unlawfully, may be expelled from the Association.

Members should:

Ensure that they operate their business in line with this Code of Best Practice and within the law.

Strive to adhere to the best industry practice, and be mindful of the standard terms, contracts and other recommendations approved by the Association.

Adopt processes for the proper incorporation of licensing terms into contracts offered to clients and contributors, which terms should, as far as possible, be recorded in writing and notified in a timely manner to counterparties. This is particularly important when dealing with clients for the first time.

Ensure that clients understand the rights / clearances that they are buying, including by specifying in writing (on the invoice for these rights, where applicable) the use of each image in terms such as size, territory, time, language, medium and number of uses.

Support the right of the ‘author’ (photographer, illustrator or artist) of each image to a credit (in addition to the agency credit) accompanying each published picture where customary and appropriate.

Take all reasonable steps to safeguard the copyright in images from their collections.

Use commercially reasonable efforts to pursue infringements and enforce copyright in represented images recognising that failure to police usage diminishes value of the industry’s services.

Ensure to the best of their ability that images are correctly captioned and that captions are not defamatory or misleading.

Where appropriate, ensure that contributors of images to their collections are aware of their responsibility to obtain properly documented permissions and releases (which may apply, for example, to models, artefacts, buildings, vehicles, trademarks, works of art) and ensure that clients are informed of the release status of particular images.

Recognise that the success of the industry depends on good cooperation with contributors and creators, based on courtesy, respect, and properly documented legal relationships.

Indicate their membership of BAPLA on editorial material, wherever possible, including on headed paper, delivery notes and via their website.

On no account purport to represent the Association in any respect without first obtaining an explicit mandate from the BAPLA Executive Committee.