What you need to know about Photo Copyright

As a designer I commonly have to ask clients for images to work with.  Eight times out of Ten, they hand over photos that are copyrighted.  When I ask them if they have a copyright release, I get a blank stare and a "what"?  Unfortunately for the millions of photographers out there, not many consumers know about the copyright laws. Or worse, they don't take it seriously.

Well, it should be taken seriously.  Average people get slapped with copyright infringement lawsuits all the time, and usually loose.  Even in our local community, last year, a designer and one of his clients had to split a $10,000 suit from a well known stock image repository because the designer used an image provided by the client that turned out was taken from the repository's website and not properly purchased to obtain the copyright release.  There was another case where a person went into a store's photo department, scanned and printed copies of their kids school photo, and the store was sued from the photographer, and the store lost.  People think they're not doing anything wrong, but if you get caught, be prepared to pay. The answer "I didn't know" is not going to get you out of it.

Here are some common things people do that is copyright infringement...

1. Scan & use photos of themselves that were taken by a professional.
--- Even though you paid to have the photo taken, and it's of yourself, the copyright is still owned by the professional who took it. *Unless they give you a written copyright release.

2. Scan & use photos of their family or their kids school photos that were taken by a professional.
--- Same explanation as # 1.

3. Use or print photos found online in Google (or any search engine) searches.
--- Images on the web are not free domain, unless the specifically state so, which is not common.  You do not have the right to pull a photo off the web and reuse it in any capacity.


4. Use or print photos from a website.
--- Same explanation as # 3.

If you have a photo you would like to use, be sure you ask permission and get it in writing.  It's worth it!