Monday, 14 November 2011

Copyright Images (Photography)

The case with image is that the author (the photographer) is the owner of the copyright. There are two exceptions that I have mentioned previously: 
  1. The photograph has been taken under the company that an author works for. 
  2. The author of the photo passes the copyright to someone else.

So under any other circumstances copyright of the image stays with the author, even if the work has been pre-paid for the purpose of the images previously. 

In case of photographs it is very important to copyright them by registration, as it is very hard to identify the ownership. Photographs can be registered under a fee of application not individual photos. In order to use photographs, it is essential to contact the photographer and receive their permission to use/publish their work.

2 comments:

  1. And is it true that if a photograph contains people in it the photographer would have to get the subjects permission before selling/marketing the image or giving permission for its use? Would the user of the image have to independantly ask the subject for permission to use their image? Or does the photographer get permission from the subject to sell the image for commercial use? Would this mean that a persons face could be used to sell anything after that...from marmalade to bank accounts without them being asked again?

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  2. This is quite a good article about the copyright in photography:
    http://www.wipo.int/sme/en/documents/ip_photography.htm#3.1

    It mentions that when taking a photograph of a person, the author should obtain a written permission, detailing how the photograph can be used. I guess it then depends on what's in that document and it should be looked at individually?

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