Do we need permission from photographers to use their photos of our church?

We have found photographs of our church exterior and interior online and would like to use those photos in various publications for the same parish church, such as the Sunday bulletin, annual report. Does the church administration need to obtain permission from the photographers to use those pics? We do not ever require that photogs asked our permission to shoot in our church, built in 1929. Thanks.

Louis on Aug 2, 2012

You should get permission from the photographers. They own the copyrights to the photos, so to use those photos without permission could be copyright infringement. Perhaps one of your parishioners is a photographer who can take some nice photos and give you full release for their use.