Greetings, Northshield!
Welcome to our Farming Guild issue. Please enjoy the various articles on period farming, the basis for civilization.
There have been questions about photo releases and officer information in local newsletters.
The SCA and Kingdom requires that for photographs for newsletters, both photographer and model releases are needed on file for identifiable people in publications.
For photographs of people in use for newsletters, the SCA Chronicler Handbook, IV.2. states: “As with hard copy issues of newsletters, electronic newsletters containing photographic images or art work must have a signed release form in place. In the case of photographs and portrait-style art work for electronic newsletters, the person(s) whose image appears in the issue may request to have it removed. To do so, the Chronicler must be contacted in writing stating which issue(s) and which image(s) are to be removed. Once received, the Chronicler must remove the image from the electronic newsletter within 24 hours.”
The NS Chronicler’s handbook (under “Photographs”) reinforces the above plus: “Before using any person’s image on a website (or in a printed publication), you must have the permission of that person. It should be in writing, just as permission to publish a poem or drawing or article would be. The key is whether the person can be easily identified.”
Note that group photos do not require a model release unless they are clearly a portrait (and taken as a portrait). Court and other such “mass” photos taken at an event are considered photos taken in a public place. However, as above, people can request photos that include them to be removed.
For a full copy of the NS Chronicler’s Handbook and Society Publication policies, please see “Handbooks” at the NS Chronicler’s page at http://northshield.org/Officers/Display.aspx?ID=3. For release forms, see “Forms” on the same page.
On local newsletter officers, it is required that officers have some form of contact information. However, permission to publish personal information (Society name correlated to mundane name, home or work address, phone numbers, and personal email addresses) must be granted as per Society Chronicler’s Handbook IV.2. However, “It is permissible to list just a person’s Society name in connection with any office they hold without permission, i.e., - ‘Group Seneschal, Lord Robert the Volunteer’: as well as ‘role’ email addresses such as Hchronicler@sca.org’.” If your group does not already have officer emails, I recommend setting some up, not only for privacy, but also to help maintain consistency when officers change.
Thanks!
In Service,
Christoforo