Copyright/licensing question for self-employed photographers

[Ian T]

This is mainly aimed at those who are self-employed, or run small businesses. I'm trying to understand how photograph ownership works when you are employed on a daily rate to do a job.

If you are freelance, and work at your expense and then sell a photo, you retain copyright and so are licensing the image according to agreed terms with a client. But, if you are employed by a client, and paid a daily rate to take photographs for them (this could be covering a wedding, sporting event, business function), who owns the copyright of the images?

I appreciate that this isn't a simple question, and I am expecting answers along the lines of 'it is for you and the client to agree on', but is there a best practice or rule of thumb, or 'usual' way of doing things? Is it reasonable to retain copyright as the creator/artist but grant the client unlimited rights of use? Or would this be pointless?

 

[dfrear]

I am pretty sure the copyright remains with the photographer unless explicitly defined in a signed agreement between you and the client. This would apply to any event your paid to cover, unless the daily rate includes the copyright transfer (normally wouldn't/shouldn't)

 

[foodpoison]

Try reading the copyrights designs and patents act in detail.
Or, alternatively, here is an extract from an overview:

Normally the individual or collective who authored the work will exclusively own the rights. However, if a work is produced as part of employment then normally the work belongs to the person/company who hired the individual. For freelance or commissioned work, rights will usually belong to the author of the work, unless there is an agreement to the contrary, (i.e. in a contract for service).

There we have it
But reading the copyrights, designs and patents act is something that is really useful. I read most of it for my ICT A-Level and found it very interesting.

 

[Steep]

Sounds good to me

 

[Ian T]

Thanks for the pointers, that makes sense. I'll have a look at the Act now.

 

[pxl8]

Don't confuse copyright with usage rights. Normally for a commercial job the price will include certain rights. Product shots are a good example where the price is normally per shot and includes the digital file. The tog still retains copyright but the client has the right to use the shot for the intended use(s) such as martketing, web, etc...

 

[Ian T]

Yes, I appreciate that - obviously if the client is paying a fair fee for the work, they're going to want to be able to use the images as they see fit. Would you prevent them from reselling the images?

 

[pxl8]

Depends on the job, but normally yes as they have a right to use, not sell. If they wanted to sell the images then the initial price would be a lot higher or have some element of royalty included.