Copyright and Ownership.


Let me say from the start that I am NOT a lawyer and that it is not my intention to offer legal advice. The information that I am offering is based on years of experience as a photographer and from research done expressly for this article.
A big obstacle for many people is that they do not fully understand their rights. This is no exception in the business of photography, especially when it comes to copyrights, which tend to be complicated and a bit overwhelming to some. My goal here is to make some sense of it all and to offer you some valuable resources that will help you make good decisions that will protect you and your work.

First the Basics.


I will provide you with several valuable resources at the end of this article that will cover copyright and intellectual property issues in great detail but for our purposes here I will break it down to basics.

1. The creator of an image is the owner of the image. In other words you shoot it you own it.
2. A work is considered copyrighted at the time it is created. From the moment you click the shutter the resulting image is your exclusive property.
3. The photographer or his agent has the exclusive right to exploit the copyright for the life of the photographer plus 70 years. This means that only you and those you designate may use or give permission to use your images.
4. To avoid violation of federal copyright law permission to use copyrighted materials for any purpose must be obtained in writing prior to use.
5. Any unauthorized use constitutes an infringement. The only exception to this rule is in the case of a statuary exemption such as fair use or limited classroom use.
6. Combining, altering or otherwise manipulating an image including cropping, scanning or otherwise electronically altering a photograph, series of photographs or portions thereof is an exclusive right held by the photographer. To do so without express written permission is considered an infringement.


As you can see the laws protecting your work are broad and strong but they will only protect your interests if you apply the. Be sure to apply a copyright to every image you create. This can be easily done in Photoshop, Lightroom and several other commonly used programs. The concept of digitally watermarking your images has also become popular and effective way to protect your interests.



I recommend
THE PROFESSIONAL PHOTOGRAPHERS LEGAL HANDBOOK
It is an essential reference for anyone interested in avoiding the pitfalls the business end of photography.

Taking Stock of Stock

A lot of assignment photographers supplement their incomes very nicely by selling their unaccounted for images as stock. What do I mean by unaccounted for? When a photographer shoots an assignment he or she usually ‘overshoots’. That is they shoot more images then their client will actually use. After the shoot the photographer goes through the images from the shoot and picks what are in his judgment the best shots from each group to deliver to the client. This is referred to as the ‘photographers picks’. the client then makes their final selection from that array. These are the shots that the photographer licenses to the client for their use.
The remainder of the images is retained in the photographer’s archives for possible future use. Even though the images were created to the specifications of a client the actual images belong to the photographer. (Refer to ‘copyright and ownership’ for a complete understanding.) Just because the client didn’t find a use for these images doesn’t mean there is anything wrong them. They were created to give the client a choice. They made their choice and this is what’s left. Perfectly good images that may well be just what someone else is looking for.
As more and more photographers gain an understanding of how all this works they are finding that their archives are becoming a valuable business asset. It is my goal to help all photographers, professional and non-professional alike find new and inventive ways to turn their images into valuable assets.

I DON’T SHOOT ASSIGNMENTS-------How do I do this?

If you don’t shoot assignments then you need to start. It is a common misconception that only photographers with big budgets, expensive equipment and a long client list shoot assignments. It’s always good when you can have a client (after all it’s someone to pay the bills), but even without a client you should not let a good idea or opportunity go to waste. When you come up with a good idea for a shoot do it as a self -assignment.
Just because you are doing it for yourself doesn’t mean that you should not plan and execute the assignment professionally. I will address the topic of planning self-assignments in future articles. Let it suffice for now to say that properly planed and executed self-assignments can yield as many if not more valuable stock images as the outtakes from a client job.

In my next installment I go into detail about planning a successful self-assignment.