COPYRIGHT

First and Foremost, Federal law, you cannot take pictures of Federal buildings, Military Bases, inside airports, and shopping malls all are prohibited. This is due to SECURITY and PRIVATE PROPERTY FOR PUBLIC USE

What is copyright: The exclusive legal right given to an originator or an assignee to print, publish, perform, film or record. The moment you capture an image, your own certain exclusive rights to that image. Even though you own the copyright you might not be able to sell them or use them as representations of your work. It is important that you understand this in order to protect yourself due to security and reproductions laws.

Your image rights include (under certain conditions),

1) The right to use that image to create a different image and/or alter in any way.

2)To distribute or display copies to the public

You do not need to register your photograph with the copyright office. Look up the DMCA (Digital Millennium Copyright Act) enacted in 1998.

If you do register, you must do so within three months of your photography being published. If you don’t register you may only recover actual damages for the infringement, instead of statutory damages.

COPYRIGHT INFRINGEMENT

Copyright infringement is when someone, including AI, reproduced, distributed, performed, or made into a derivative work without permission of the copyright owner.

Artwork of any kind, even in public places, is considered a reproduction and you cannot sell it in any form. Painting, sculptures, murals, graffiti, landscape gardens, and golf courses.

Paid entrance fee, (Not parking fees), to games, shows, museums, zoos, gardens, fairs, air shows, amusement parks. But you can say in a garden or a

zoo taking close-ups of animals or flowers are OK as long as it does not show any part of the property you are on while capturing the image

Other copyrighted images are logos on clothing, signs, and buildings. Camouflage material on anything including outfits is copyrighted.

Take into consideration the copyright issues before you shoot if intending to sell or do work for hire. This does not apply to your own personal use of the image.

My advice is to do your homework; Check the copyright laws in the area your photographs were captured before selling or using them as advertisement for your work as a photographer. If in doubt get releases.

Possible infringement without releases can vary by town, city, county, state, or country. Example: In Texas you cannot photograph anyone in a way that could arouse or gratify the sexual desire of any person. This can be pretty broad coverage especially with the clothing seen worn by some in public places.

EDITORIAL USE

These contain recognizable people, and/or copyrighted material except for those in Part I of airports, malls, artwork of any kind.

Editorial images are of recognizable people, and/or copyrighted material apart from those mentioned in the beginning of this presentation They are used by journalist, bloggers, and internal slideshows such as presentations.

Newspapers, inside books and magazines NEVER ON THE COVER NOR AS A FROM OF ADVERTISING.

All editorial must capture the realism of the scene in a public setting with no altering of the image other than the accepted enhancement such as color, contrast and sharping

In the metadata of the Editorial photo file under description, you must format in the description with place, date, followed by the description. Example:

Portland, Oregon, USA – August 17, 2026: A street performer……….

COMMERCIAL USE

Commercial use is for promoting a product or service, including your own work in any promotional way such as advertising, calendars, posters, prints, cups, t-shirts, cards… This includes your own website and social medias of any kind. So be sure you do not use any editorial images on sites that are not private.

Commercial images must be free of any visible company banding, trademarks, designer clothing and furniture, landscaping designs, architectural designs, licenses plates and addresses.

You will need model and property releases for images with people and property. You must keep a hard and digital copy of releases in a safe secure place as long as the image exists.

Easy Release App is free to download and use for model and property releases. You will have to download and possibly pay to get other releases such as access to property. Through PPA you can access all of these releases to print out.

Do you need to put a copyright notice on your work when display on the internet? YES! Using a copyright notice on your work can be used against those who are caught infringing on your copyright. Yes, your copyright can be removed but, they have first to download a copy of the image from the internet. The original with the copyright is still on the web. That is your recourse for infringement.

Before uploading to the Internet I advise, using a copy of the file and downsizing to the longest side 500 pixels at 72 PPI (pixel per inch) and your copyright overlay. A fairly good size for viewing but worthless for any monetary value.

FIND ART PHOTOGRAPHY

THERE ARE TWO TYPES

FINE ART

AND

FINE ART LIMITED PRINTS

Fine Art Photography is photography created in line with the vision of the photographer as an artist.

Fine art limited is where a photograph is printed in limited numbers and cannot be changed when the collection is out on the market.

ACCURATE RECORDS OF SALES ARE VERY IMPORTANT AN BOTH PAPER AND DIGITIAL RECORDS ARE HIGHLY RECOMMENDED.

Nassenzweig v. diCoria Ruling in Favor of diCoria

February 8, 2006

Nassensqeig a Jewish man walking in Time Square unaware diCoria was photographing him twenty feet away. Saying having his photograph taken was against his religion, he sued diCoria and lost. The plhotographer, being well edugacted in his field, won because it was sold as a Fine Art Print in a limited print run and as an editorial, inside of a Published Book. But he still had to pay his lawyer to defend him.