As photographers, artists or whatever creative type you may be one of the big challenges is the mystic world of the copyright. Knowing when what we produce is protected or when you snap a shot what in the image is protected work that you may need permissions to even photograph. What about someone copying what you did in a shot, is that protected, do you have a legal leg to stand on? Make the jump and I’ll point out a few resources and thoughts that might help you figure some of this out.
Unless you’re someone who spent years in school and enjoyed spending countless hours reading through briefs or rulings that would put the mere mortal man into complete brain numbing shutdown all of this stuff can be as clear as mud. During the last few weeks there have been some allegations of artists copying other artists work. The first was an allegation that sculptors plagiarized an image created by a photographer. Next came allegations that another photographer had produced look-alike work of another photographer. The most recent was a photographer claiming that an ad created stole his work. I’ll let you read the articles and make up your own mind on these claims but they are rather interesting and give one some pause for thought.
So what about when you snap that photo, what items are in the frame that might be infringing on someone else’s copyright. I had never given much thought to this until late last year when I entered the Nikon Festival. When I read through the contest rules, which like any kind of contract is rather long, I came across the section explaining how the short films entered could not contain any licensed trademarks. Here is what was listed in their official rules.
“The Submission must not contain material that misappropriates, violates or infringes a third party’s rights, including but not
limited to privacy, publicity, copyright, trademark, patent, proprietary and/or intellectual property rights;“
“The Submission must not contain brand names or trademarks;”
“The Submission must not contain footage, images, music or artwork not created by entrant;“
Another headline story of late that made me take a step back and think revolves around those lovely public art displays that are popping up on a street corners in so many cities. What about one of them being in an image that you might put up for sale. Here is the recent story of one such image that had been taken which partially showed some public art that had been embedded into a sidewalk.
So now you’re probably feeling scared about doing any type of photography and you’re ready to head on over to eBay and sell every piece of equipment you own. Will don’t do that just yet. What I want to impose on you is that it is important that we as photographers and artists understand copyright and fair usage laws. There is a new resource just starting that breaks all this down in simple terms that anyone could understand. The Copyright Corner is a new online resource started by Parsons The New School for Design to help artists understand and ask questions about all things copyright. They break things down in a very understandable way taking the confusion out of the legal mumbo jumbo.
If you’re a photographer two great books that cover this topic and many other items, and in my opinion are must haves in your business’ library are Professional Business Practices in Photography Seventh Addition and Best Business Practices for Photographers.
There is so much more that could be covered but instead I encourage you to get out there and do some reading. Check out The Copyright Corner, talk to your photog friends on the subject and learn from them. Don’t be afraid of the copyright, embrace it, educate yourself and have an understanding of it to protect yourself and others.
~ William