Copyright vs. Reproduction Rights: Explained

This subject is a hard one to grasp both for photographers and for customers. Many photographers don't completely understand it and so I thought I would give an explanation for everyone. This is long and boring but READ IT!

Copyright and Reproduction Rights are different. All a client needs is a reproduction release and a photographer should be very leery about relinquishing their copyright but in my opinion release reproduction rights is no big deal. Read on to learn why I feel this way. Everyone should know that just because you purchase a print it does not give you any rights over the image, just the print.

COPYRIGHT:
According to the US Copyright website, "Copyright is a form of protection provided by the laws of the United States to the authors of "original works of authorship." including literary, dramatic, musical, artistic and certain other intellectual works. This protection is for both published and unpublished works..."

Copyright is granted to the author the moment the work is created it does not need to be registered or bear a copyright symbol or notice. Ignorance on this is not a form of defense.

What this all comes down to is that for a photographer (the author of an image) you own your images. So while you may be hiring a photographer to create images for you, the actual image rights belong to the photog. Another context to put it in is painting. Let's say you purchase a lovely painting, it's even the original signed by the artist. You would in fact own the painting, but not the rights to it. The rights to the work maintain those of the author for a period of 70 years after their death or until the rights are sold.

The rights granted to the author (or purchaser) as protected by US Copyright law are:

- To reproduce the work in copies or phonorecords;

- To distribute copies or phonorecords of the work to the public by sale or other transfer of ownership, or by rental, lease, or lending;

- To display the work publicly, in the case of literary, musical, dramatic, and choreographic works, pantomimes, and pictorial, graphic, or sculptural works, including the individual images of a motion picture or other audiovisual work; and

So those are the basics. For photographers it is wise to not release your copyright. If you do the person whom you released them to could not only reproduce them at will, but could sell them for money (ie stock images) and they could sue you for your reproduction of them. You wouldn't even be able to make them a print with out their written permission.

For the customer this means you may NOT scan them, photocopy them, or anything. You may not put them on your website, on your facebook or myspace, you may not produce your own cards, you may not ask another company to produce those cards with those images. What you may do is look at the beautiful products that you purchased. You paid your photographer for the image in that product form not the rights to the image.

REPRODUCTION RIGHTS:
I understand the desire to have rights to your images. Some want them more for safety and security, some because they like to scrap or want to do something themselves, and some to save money on prints, either way I get it. That is where reproduction rights come in. Every photographer has a different release, but you would receive a written release allowing you the rights to reproduce the images. This is all the typical client needs or really wants.

I offer my clients options and because of this I see absolutely no reason other than dishonesty for my clients to violate copyright laws and steal from me. I would love to simply charge enough for a portrait session to hand over the files, but most of you won't pay that much upfront so I don't. For weddings this is exactly what I do. You pay a premium for my time and you get a disk as part of the coverage. I don't like to nickel and dime on small prints, but do want you to purchase the large ones through me for quality purposes and I want you to have your images. And in reality I'm not that expensive and I don't use high-pressure sales so there is no reason to steal from me. I don’t go to your work and steal from you.

What is in my reproduction release: Well I'd link it, but I don't want dishonest people forging my signature. If your a photog and would like to see it e-mail and I'll send it to you so you can create your own. But basically it states that you are allowed to reproduce the images for personal use. I maintain the rights, and you are not allowed to sell the images. You can make cards, prints, books, slideshows or whatever you want as long as you are doing it. You cannot hand that release over to another professional and pay them to make/design products for you, you can pay a print to print your creations.

I will furnish you with the digital files of the images for different uses and a written release legally allowing you to reproduce them. I furnish you with digital files because scans are bad reproductions. DO NOT EVER SCAN A PRINT from me unless you want to make me mad!

Here are your options:

- proof disk of all images with a logo on them, this is for you to use to e-mail, post on your websites and slideshows.
- single image one-time use for things like cards and announcements.
- single image unlimited use for that image that you would like to print into 100 4x6's to distribute.
- small print disk of all images unlimited use. These images are printable to 4x6
- large print disk of all images unlimited use. These images are printable to 11x14

And until March 23 only I will offer 40% off either the small print or large print disk to all of my customers. This is a wonderful opportunity. Only valid as an a la carte product. E-mail or call if you are interested.

I do my best to educate my clients so that there is no reason to claim ignorance. Copyright and violation of it are addressed in my agreements, the terms and conditions you agree to on the shopping cart, there is a copyright sticker and it's printed on the reverse of each print or card, and in each product order there is a card informing you once again on copyright. The copyright site has always been linked from the blog and there has always been a copyright statement on the bottom of my website.

You will notice on my agreements that there is an area that covers all of this. You will also notice that you will be charged for each image I catch you reproducing/stealing. I protect myself not only by registering my images Federally, but by also making it a contractual agreement. I recommend you understand this and photogs I recommend you do this. I will also prosecute those businesses that illegally reproduce my images so word to you, do the honest legal thing and ask for a release. And a shout out to Paperwerks in Sioux Falls who recently required a release and I'm so glad they did or I would not have known of the reproduction of some of my images.

If you would like more information on this subject please go to the US Copyright website

Thanks for reading trying to learn and being well informed educated clients and photographers. I would love feedback from those that actually took the time to read this. Do you understand, think I'm nuts, more confused, etc. If any of you teach photography, art or design type courses at your local schools or colleges I would be happy to come and speak about this. I do have a background in education and value it greatly.
CA