January 18th, 2008 Black and White Fridays: Legal Copyright
Okay, so maybe using our “black and white fridays” theme to write about some legal matter is a stretch, but over the last few days I’ve gotten a number of brides asking whether or not they receive copyright of the images from their wedding. This is a common misconception, and I’d like to clear up some of the confusion about what rights couples receive with a disk of their images and what is typical in the wedding photography world.
I’ve been hearing these questions: “Do we own the images on the disk?” “Will we get the copyright?” “What are we allowed to do with the images?” The easiest way to explain copyright is to use an analogy another photographer (Molly Bennett) developed:
Book Authors and Book Readers
When a person writes a book, s/he owns the copyright to it. Copyright, among other things, indicates authorship - that means that whenever the book is quoted, the author will be credited, and you’ll know who wrote it. For the book author, their book is published, and you buy it. Yes, you own the book, but the content of the book isn’t your own; if you wanted to quote something from the book, you’d attach the author’s name to it. So copyright isn’t transferred to the book reader – the author still gets credit as being the author.
So what rights are given?
Print and display rights. And these, truly, are the only things that you need. I’ve never heard of a wedding photographer handing over the copyright of their images - that would mean that they’d never be able to use them in their portfolio, in ads, in contests, etc.
At A Softer Image, we include in our contract the rights for you and your partner to print the images and use them on the web. This way, your photo lab can legally print the photos for you, you can make your own album, you can use them on your wedding website, etc. While the photographer is still the author (and therefore retains the copyright), you can still use the images in these ways. Remember, if someone else wants these rights, they have to purchase a separate disk, which will contain written rights for that individual.