Copyrights

[Red Robin]

Hello all, I'm new here but when I loged on the page had some very nice photos . Each one stated it was copyrighted. MY question is this, is the artist & all of their work copyrighted or does each picture has to have its own paperwork & fee.😱

 

[Neare]

There is no fee on copyrighting things. It's your work and it's up to you what you allow others to do with it. It is your 'right' to copyright it.

Now, selling a photo is another matter, what you are doing there is selling the 'rights' to use your photo. There may be paperwork involved with this.

Usually online sites such as flickr automatically put a copyright on everything you upload unless you state otherwise.
I don't know if RFF galleries have anything about copyrights however, if you wish you're welcome to say that it is.

Now if you haven't said it is copyrighted and someone else uses it without permission, because they have not bought the 'rights' to your work you are entitled to then ask them to remove it or acknowledge you etc.

Edit: Note that the copyright is not necessarily the watermarks that many people place on their photos, it is adequate to have "© blah blah blah" nearby.

 

[antiquark]

As soon as you take the picture, you own the copyright. That's the law.

 

[rover]

I find this a very interesting and article
http://www.popphoto.com/Features/5-Things-You-Should-Know-About-Photo-Copyrights

 

[Steve M.]

I don't keep up w/ the legalities because I don't care about them, but anything posted online is fair game for anything. If someone wants to use my little low rez photo for any purpose under the sun it's fine w/ me. More power to them. That's their stuff, not mine. Me, I just trip the shutter. After that, I have effectively lost control (and interest) of the "product".

 

[antiquark]

If someone wants to use my little low rez photo for any purpose under the sun it's fine w/ me.

You forgot to post a link to your gallery! 🙂

 

[sfaust]

Hello all, I'm new here but when I loged on the page had some very nice photos . Each one stated it was copyrighted. MY question is this, is the artist & all of their work copyrighted or does each picture has to have its own paperwork & fee.😱

Copyright is indeed automatic at the time of tripping the shutter. However, its a very limited copyright with no real legal teeth to it, and generally more expensive to litigate than the actual awards (ie, no statutory damages, legal fees, etc.).

To get full copyright you need to register the images with the Library of Congress. There is a fee for this ($35) but you can register one image, several hundred, a full years worth, etc. So the fee is negligible if you group your registrations. With registration the statutory damages (up to $150K per image/infringement) and attorneys fees come into play, and is where you really start to have a good legal standing.

Without registering, you could end up spending $35K to recover $5,000 in damages for the infringement since attorneys fees and statutory damages are off the table. If registered however, the defendant could be required to pay the $35K for your legal fees, $5K for the infringement, and another $xxK to you in statutory damages per image.

The automatic copyright is really worthless for pursuing an infringement case, but it does cover you somewhat between the time of taking the image and before registration. Once registered within the 90 day window, you will have full coverage from the time it was created.

Few people will spend $35K to recover a $5K infringement, and companies that routinely infringe on copyright count on this. Knowing that most amateurs and some professionals don't register, they feel empowered to infringe knowing the photographer is not in a good position to pursue an infringement case. But when the image is registered, it's clear they are infringing, and knowing they could end up paying their legal fess, the photographers legal fees, and statutory damages, they are generally very eager to discuss a settlement rather than litigate the case.

Registration does indeed make a huge difference in the outcome, and puts the photographer in the drivers seat, rather than being a passenger dragged behind the car by a rope.