Below is a brief guide to copyright and licensing. It is not a definitive statement of the law but intended to give an introduction to what copyright and licensing are about and how they relate to buying photography.
What is copyright? and who owns it?
Under the UK Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988, copyright in any photograph automatically belongs to the photographer. Copyright gives a photographer the right to control the ways in which their photographs may be used. Similar laws also apply in other countries.
What is licensing?
A license specifies the precise circumstances under which photographs may be used. It gives clients the freedom they need to use photography in a range of contexts while allowing photographers to keep the copyright in their work.
I've used photographers who are happy to hand over their pictures and don't mention copyright or licensing, surely I can just do what I want with those pictures?
A minority of photographers are ignorant about licensing and copyright law, and may not set out a license agreement clearly, or issue a license at all. Unless you have written agreement to the contrary, by law the copyright in any photograph still belongs to the photographer, regardless of any verbal agreement. Using photography with no clear licensing agreement leaves you, the client, open to all kinds of potential disagreements and potentially expensive problems later on. It is in the interest of both client and photographer to be clear about the terms of a license, thereby protecting both parties from future dispute.
Buying material from a "Dump and Run" photographer is very risky!
If I pay for film and processing and CD's, surely I own the photographs outright?
No. you've simply paid for some essential consumables. Copyright relates to the image, not to the material on which it's recorded. A photograph is copyright-protected regardless of whether it's in the form of a negative, print, slide or stored electronically.
Buying photography is no different from buying a music cd. You can listen to the cd at home but cannot play it in a club or a bar unless a performing license has been purchased. Neither can you take that music cd to Coca Cola and sell or give it to them to use in their latest advert, because the music is not yours to sell or give away. When buying the music cd, a license was purchased allowing a specific use - personal use only. It's the same principal with photography. The client specifies the uses required, the price is set accordingly and a license specifies the permitted uses that have been agreed.
I need flexibility in how I use the photographs. Why can't I buy the copyright?
Buying the copyright would be prohibitively expensive. Licensing insures that the client isn't paying for any usage's that they may never use. This helps keep the cost down for the client, whilst leaving open the possibility of negotiating extra usage at a later date if required. Photographers keep their copyright so that they can re-licence their work at a later date, thus spreading the costs of running their business, making commissioned photography less expensive for the commissioning client.
Can I resell photographs that I have commissioned?
Not unless the photographer has explicitly agreed to allow syndication.
Selling copyright-protected images without the consent of the copyright owner is illegal.
Further information:
Books
"Beyond the Lens" Rights, Ethics & Business Practice in Professional Photography. Available from the Association of Photographers tel. 020 7739 6669 e-mail aop@dircon.co.uk website www.the-aop.org