Intellectual Property/Copyright question

[doverbey]

Okay...this is loosely related to PS Elements :) Through my daughter's all-consuming passion for horses, I have started fooling around with horse-related digital art (daovisualarts.com) and am finding that there's a local market. I am offering services to customize for clients but could really use some direction on contract language in regard to ownership (sources for information, sample contracts, what to be sure to cover).

Let's say, for example, a customer sends me a photo and want it re-created - who would own the final product? (contract language?) If I wanted to give them a choice on ownership & base the price on the choice, any suggestions on how to figure out the pricing? What if they owned it but I wanted to use it in my Web portfolio (contract language?)

What about if I do a photoshoot for them? Who owns the rights to the photos? What if I wanted to use a photo to create something to sell for myself?

etc. any suggestions on how to get started working this out would be very welcome. It's sort of overwhelming from scratch :)
deb

[Maureen]

Doverbey,

You can never really "own" an image created by someone else, regardless of how you may enhance or alter it. The closest you can come is to purchase usage rights in perpetuity, for all media, for all uses. The credit for the image always goes to the creator ie "photo by John Doe, copyright Jim Smith Photography, or Mega Corporation". If you are hired to shoot photos for someone else, they would want wording in the contract that they retain all the rights to the use of those photographs. You could negotiate that they always (or whenever reasonable) give you a credit for the image when it is used and you could also negotiate that they allow you the right to limited use of the image ie on your website, or for your portfolio, or for the purpose of promoting your photography business.

In the case of you taking a client's image and enhancing it, you have no right to use that enhanced image unless you have your client's permission to do so. Keep in mind that everything is negotiable. You just have to be clear from the start who ends up with rights to what. BTW, the above applies to any kind of image - video, film, stills, original art of any kind.

I work in film production, but I am not a lawyer, so I wouldn't presume to advise you on how to word your contracts. Maybe if you went to some of the stock photography sites you could get your hands on some standard agreements. Good luck with your new venture

Maureen

[NRiceDesigns]

Deb,
The portrait photographers I know stipulate in their contract that they own the copyright of the portraits they take. Some of them will sell the client the copyright, but most prefer not to. The photographer usually stipulates in their contract that they can use the portrait for marketing, etc. A couple of my photography magazines covered this awhile back, but I don't remember which ones.

Try DPReview.com. (Digital Photography Review). The site is frequented by professional photographers & some of them may share their contract with you.

[Grant]

Deb

The first thing is where do you live. Sounds strange but the law changes from country to country and I suspect region to region. In Canada the Copyright is owned by the customer not the photographer. Well that is not totally true but close enough. The copyright will remain with the photographer only if he came up with an original idea. So if you contract a photographer to take your portrait or a wedding, no matter how creative they are the ownership belongs to you. To get ownership the Photographer will stipulate in his contract that he retains the copyright. This as far as i know has never been challenged in Canadian courts.

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[Ellen]

Hi, You might want to search here
http://www.betterphoto.com/discTOC.asp
I've seen a lot of discussion about copyright stuff there.
Hope that is a help.

[doverbey]

I appreciate the info & input. I will spend some time at the links suggested. The studios I've dealt with in the past for my kids' portraits have all retained the copyright on everything which, as I thought about this, led me to checking out professional studio sites to see if their policies are posted and I haven't spent much time yet looking at these yet but quickly did find some stuff that was helpful and I'll pursue this avenue as well. Thanks for everyone's time :)
deb

[JonE]

Wikipedia has a not bad article on copyright law, including several countries and links to articles on other countries:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Copyright

There is a very good article on UK copyright law here:
http://www.photogalaxy.com/articles/photographic_copyright.php

If you want a form of contract that works for your business, I'd suggest you contact a lawyer - that's what they are for, you know. ;) A local intellectual property lawyer or law firm would be a good place to look.

[doverbey]

Good suggestion. Yes, I know about the lawyers - I'm just not to a point where I'm that serious yet. It's a fledgling business that I might not even really want to pursue so I'm just looking for some general guidelines so I sound like I know what I'm talking about to potential customers :)