Whether you’re a photojournalist or portrait photographer, you are the owner of the images you shoot.
A photographer is the copyright holder and one has the right to control how their images are sold or reproduced and earn from their use where possible.
Clients may pay you to take photos, but they are also paying for their use. Today, as life moves digital, one of the most important laws in the photography scene is copyright.
Violation of the copyright could easily leave photographers entangled in legal issues potentially crippling their trade.
Whether you’re dealing with people or a business and their images, problems can arise and therefore one should take steps to protect their creative works.
Here are a few tips: –
– Always inform your clients and include copyright statements in your contracts and on the photo release forms.
– Mark your copyright on the back of prints with stamps or stickers.
– Include a copyright tag in the footer of every page of your website and watermarks on any photos posted on social media.
– If you find your work is used illegally, consider requesting – politely and professionally – its removal as quickly as possible. You can also send a cease and desist note to the concerned party.
Usually, many people who re-use an image they found online are innocent infringers. But if they’re using the image to sell t-shirts or mugs that’s not innocent and you should at a minimum, turn to legal action.
CONTRACTS
If you’re a beauty and fashion photographer, you’ll need contracts with your talent pool, such as the models working on the shoot.
For weddings, anniversaries, and bar mitzvahs, your contract should spell out your relationship with your clients. Photo ownership laws indicate that the person who takes a photo owns it, not the subject of the image.
If you’re selling your photographs to publications, whether online or in print, you must learn which contracts are healthy for your business.
RELEASE FORMS
Photo release forms are simple contracts between the customers and you the photographer.
In Kenya, you risk legal penalties for using someone’s image for a commercial purpose without their consent reduced in a release form.
Laws on filming in public protect your ability to do your trade unhindered but the regulations do not allow you to make money from someone’s recognizable image without their consent in the form of a signed release.
PUBLIC VIS-A-VIS PRIVATE PLACES
There is a law against taking pictures without consent in private places such as one’s home, gym, restaurants, or clothing stores.
You need permission to do so in the form of a contract or a photo release. But what happens if you snap a casual photo of a stranger and their dog in a local public park and it turns out perfectly? Laws against taking pictures without permission apply to private places, not public spaces.