Photography Copyright: Q & As Part One

Who owns photography copyright?

Photography copyright can be a minefield, but to put it in a nutshell, it depends on the contract you have with the client. If you have no contract with the client, then you, the photographer, own the copyright.

If you have a contract with an employer, for example if you are a staffer on a local newspaper, you need to check the terms and conditions of your contract: it’s as simple as that.

In the old days of film, do you remember the galleries of pictures they used to have in the windows? They would display pictures from the week’s news, for example the air ambulance landing on the pier, etc. There would be a sign saying, ‘Come inside to order your pictures.’ The staffers would take the pictures but wouldn’t get any money from those sales, because they were employed by the newspaper, and knowing the newspapers, they would have have tied it up so that they weren’t giving any commission out.

Now, the freelancers would more than likely own the copyright of their images, because they are usually switched on enough to ensure they are only contracted to provide digital images.

So, check your contract!

Can I use my name for my photography copyright?

Yes. There is a field in your metadata file for adding usage rights. In this section, you can set out exactly how the image you provide is to be used. This can include whether the photograph is free of charge and what byline to use. You could use your name, business name, website or a combination (e.g., Al Macphee/MiraclePR).

You can specify a website, to get that traffic, or a Facebook page. They are your terms. There is a company that keeps advertising on Facebook that will create a copyright watermark from your signature. Hello???? You’re going to use your signature for your copyright logo? Why not use your PIN number?

When you send the files (e.g., to the local paper), the editors will, in theory, look at this metadata file and follow your usage terms.

How can one protect his/her copyright when putting pictures on the Internet?

With difficulty, because there are always software developers out there working against you. I came across an app that can apparently take the copyright logo off an image. I haven’t looked at it yet, but I need to. Once a photograph is in the public domain, people can be pretty unscrupulous. I had an email this morning from someone, regarding a cup final from some years ago. He asked, “I have some pictures that you took of me when I was younger. Have you still got them so I can get the copyright logo taken off them?” He shouldn’t have taken them in the first place!

If someone is on your website, through which you’re trying to sell images to people, they are in your shop. They may be in a different building to you, but by entering your website gallery, they have entered your selling space. If they take an image, with or without a photography copyright logo on it, and keep it for themselves, they are essentially shoplifting. There are no two ways about it. It’s just become socially acceptable to do it.

Now, some people have the best intentions. A parent might have only ten minutes, at lunch time, to go through dozens of pictures in a football tournament. Therefore, they save them all to their phone, so later on they can show Jimmy the half a dozen images of him with his trophy.

In a way, he’s essentially saving the images to make a final choice later on. But if he saves the images for his personal or promotional purposes and puts them on Facebook, that’s theft.

You can put a copyright logo across your images, but I tend not to bother, because people will just crop them out anyway. Or they will just say, “I thought I was giving you publicity.” No you weren’t? You were only sharing them with your mates who know who I am anyway.

I once had to have a discussion with the F.A. after an official decided he was going to steal some images from my website. Following the discussion, I made up a copyright notice that said, ‘©MiraclePR. If you can see this text, this image is stolen.’ That puts a lot of people off, but you run the risk of spoiling that image so much that people can’t see facial expressions. It’s the same with overlays that cover images with copyright symbols, etc.

You can reduce images to the smallest possible file size to deter people from downloading them, but there is even software out there that can counter that. It’s called interpolation. You’ve got artificial intelligence that will put more pixels into your image. Besides, if you’ve got an image that’s 100KB and you want to make it twice the size to view it on an iPad or phone, you’re easily going to do that. It doesn’t have to be that big for phones which is where most people see and share their photos now.

Mostly though, I put my photography copyright information in the EXIF file and, if I can be bothered, I chase them up.

You might be able to disable right-click or screen grabs. But what’s to stop someone using their smartphone to take a photo of their laptop screen? Essentially, they’ve got a screen grab, haven’t they – a digital copy of that picture. So there’s no real way, once you’ve put a picture on the internet, to protect it.

You can put them on in black and white with a note saying that the print will be in full colour when you get your order through. Still, that won’t stop some people. The referee I mentioned stole black and white images! What do you do? People are still prepared to do it. They think that because it’s behind closed doors they’re not shoplifting but essentially they are.

Appeal to people’s morals. Remind them that it’s like going into a local butcher’s and taking a joint from his fridge. He’s got rates to pay and his kids to feed. They’re essentially making it harder for him to feed his kids. They need to think of that before they right click.

You’ve just got to make it as difficult as you can – but in a way that suits you.

Have a burning photography question you would like Al to write about in his next blog post? Email info@miraclepr.com with your request.