How to Safeguard Your Photos’ Copyrights?

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For most photographers who are starting out, there is the misconception that every photo they have captured belongs to them. This is not necessarily true. To claim ownership, you must register your photos, ensure your work is copyrighted and know what rights you have as a professional photographer.

1. Register your work with the copyrights office

You can register your photos whenever you wish. However, it is advisable to do it as soon as possible so as to avoid legal problems. Here are some important guidelines which you need to consider when it comes to registering your work.

• If you have some photos which are already published, be sure to get them registered within three months of the publication date
• Photos which are yet to be published should be registered first so as to avoid any copyright infringement
• To qualify for copyright, you need to ensure that your work is original and in tangible form (in media or print)

Registration of copyrights is usually very easy and affordable. In most countries, you are allowed to register several photos within one registration fee. Therefore, make sure the DVD or CD contains as many photos as possible. As long as the images are clear, they don’t have to be in high resolution.

If you are targeting a global market, you could consider obtaining copyrights in other countries as well. This is because for some countries, there is a difference between economic rights and moral rights when it comes to copyright restrictions.

2. Copyright your digital and print photos correctly

Photographers have different ways of copyrighting their work. Some place a watermark on top of their work, while others put a copyright notice at the bottom of their photos. Though they make look very obvious, the following are some rules for copyrighting your photos.

• Have the copyright symbol on your images ©
• Include the publication date of the photo
• Include the official name of your photography business
• Mention the geographical location of the photo. In the event of a dispute, this will make the work of the court much easier
• Include the phrase ‘All Rights Reserved’

3. Get familiar with your photography rights

When preparing a contract, it is important to specify how your images can be used. Here are the different kinds of rights you need to be familiar with.

1. Exclusive photo rights: In this case, the buyer maintains exclusive rights to your photos. This means that the image can’t be used by any other publication or vendor. The exclusion can be limited to a specific geographical location, industry or product sector. This means you can negotiate exclusive rights so as to get more leverage. For instance, a leading wedding publication might want exclusive rights to your photos for an upcoming issue. This means that you are not allowed to sell your photos to any other offline or online wedding-related publication. However, this would not stop you from selling your photos in the greeting card market.
2. Lease or one-time rights: Here, your photos are licensed for a specific number of uses or to be used for a specific period of time.
3. Print rights: This allows your photos to be published through conventional publications or print media.
4. Online or electronic media rights: Your photos can be displayed on a website or put in electronic format (DVD or CD). You could opt to have your photos embedded with digital metadata.
5. All rights: This means giving up all the rights to your photos for a specific period of time or permanently.
6. Transfer rights: In some cases, you may be allowed to transfer your photos’ copyrights to someone else. However, make sure the contract has no hidden clauses which prohibit you from doing this.
7. First rights: This is where a buyer gets the chance of being the first to publish your work.

Author Bio:

Charles often writes about internet safety tips for web users. Currently, he is contributing to a blog that promotes Photos.com deals (find them here) and a Jupiter Images promo code (get it from this page). Jupiter Images and Photos.com provide over 5 million royalty-free stock photos and illustrations.

Tagged as: copyrights, digital photos, photography rights, photos, privacy, register, safeguard