Can anyone point me in the right direction for an example of a usage contract? Preferably one that is flexible enough to cover a variety of scenarios.

Thanks.

-Lee

There is some common standard language that you will find in most model releases, and some standard boilerplate release language that is put out by some professional photography associations.

Usage rights contracts, on the other hand, vary quite a bit, and there is no real standard language. Generally, the photographer automatically owns the copyright. They then grant limited usage rights to a client or model or whoever for a specific use. Any rights not granted are automatically retained by the photographer. Most of the time, you would want the terms to be as specific as you can, rather than "flexible". If the language you use is too loose, the photos may be used in ways you don't want.

It doesn't need to be complex legal language. You can simply write: "I hereby grant XXX limited rights to use XXX photo/image for the following use: (list uses here, be specific), for XXX period of time." Any additional complexity will depend on the purpose of the image rights. Are you talking about giving a model rights to post their images? Are you talking about granting limited rights to a publisher to print a single stock photo? Granting more-or-less unlimited rights to a client who paid you to do a shoot for them?

Check out Photobyte software; it's free and helps to write usage legalese.