Reasoning for Copyright Protection

Why do photographers protect and enforce their copyrights?

Those with little appreciation or respect for the photographic process will assuredly feel that photographers are just trying to squeeze more money out of the client. For those that do appreciate the craft might understand that pro photographers work their tails off to gain the knowledge and experience to produce consistent quality images. Shouldn’t photographers be compensated when their work has been used or displayed? This is where the U.S. Copyright law greatly affects every photographer’s business. By granting the artist exclusive copyright, the federal law allows the artist to charge compensation for reprinting the work in order to make a living. It also allows the artist the opportunity to be compensated for unauthorized usage.

Is it honest to purchase a print, scan it, copy it and give the illegal copies to your friends/family as gifts. No. If you purchase a pair of jeans from a store, does that entitle you to the entire stock of that exact size and style? No. Is it right to copy an image off of a photography blog and use it without permission? Even if you commissioned the image? No, it is not. It is basically the same as ripping and burning a motion picture DVD or downloading a song without purchase, which unfortunately for most people is an ethical gray area.

Basics of ©

In essence, the copyright is protection of intellectual property against any unauthorized use. The 1976 U.S. Copyright Law grants exclusive copyright to the authors of any original artwork. Such rights include:

• The right to reproduce or copy
• The right to create derivative works from the original work
• The right to sell, lease or rent copies of the work to the public
• The right to perform the work publicly, such as a musical, dramatic or literary work
• The right to display the work publicly

In regards to photography, as soon as a photographer creates an image it it copyrighted. That copyright is therefore granted to the photographer or the studio he or she was an employee. This holds true with commissioned photography such as wedding or portraits. A commissioned photographer is NOT an employee of the client and therefore the copyright remains with the artist unless otherwise negotiated.

Infringement of Copyright

Whether it is done in ignorance or blatant disrespect towards an artist’s original work, copyright infringement  happens all the time.

Examples

Purchased Prints

• scanning a print and saving as a digital file
• reprinting an image that was illegally scanned

Purchased Digital Files

• duplicating files and distributing to third parties
• using digital files for anything other than personal reproduction, i.e. commercial usage

Website/Blog

• copying the images from a photographers website or blog, including proofing sites
• using stolen images and cropping out the watermark

Distribution

• using a personal reproduction license to sell / distribute any images to third parties

Any infringer of copyright is liable for actual damages of the artist loss. So if you copy off a photographers blog, you have in essence bought a digital file and will be responsible for the cost of that file. If you scan a 5×7 print and blow it up to 11×14 and put it on your mantle, you will be responsible for the photographers price for that print.

Protection of the Subjects/Clients

Copyright can also offer protection for the subjects of the photographs as well. For example, a young family in Missouri recently found out that their annual family portrait had been illegally used on a billboard for a Czech Republic grocery store. The mother who commissioned the photograph had uploaded a large resolution image to a social networking site, which was subsequently able to be searched on Google Images. The creator of the billboard may have just found this large resolution image and copied it and put it in their ad, that simple. This is an example of copyright infringement that affects the photographer and subject alike, and also displays the seriousness of unauthorized usage. Photographers and clients should openly discuss copyright and image usage to avoid situations that may be harmful to either party. Here is a link to the Czech billboard story: http://www.pdnpulse.com/2009/06/how-did-this-familys-facebook-picture-end-up-on-a-czech-poster.html

On a Personal Note

We as photographers take copyright law seriously because it protects our work and allows us fair compensation for any print and product derived from our skill, knowledge and experience. Please if you have any questions on usage of commissioned images, please contact your photographer; better safe than sorry.