photographs for publication

[Noel Peirce]

What legal statement does one need to include with a photograph that is sold for publication. Also can the copyright symbol be applied without actually filing for a copyright ? Any knowledgeable information would be appreciated.

[Ivan J. Eberle]

In the USA, you own the copyright from the moment the image was taken--provided you didn't take the photo while "under hire" (i.e. as someone's employee). I always watermark the low-res review images with copyright notice and spell out the terms before uploading/FTP'ing full-res images, and wait to get the client's return email as buy-in before sending.

You don't need to register it to own copyright but it's not a bad idea because the civil liability for anyone in violation will be higher, should the need ever arise to sue them.

You can assign rights for exclusive or non-exclusive one-time use, a specific period of time, or forever. Electronic distribution and worldwide use ought to be considered. Standard legal boilerplate and pricing is probably yet available through ASMP.

[polyglot]

It depends what you mean by "sold". Usually one does not sell a photo (i.e. sell the copyright), one licenses it for a specific purpose, therefore the sale should spell out the terms of the license in detail: usage, scope, frequency, duration, permissible markets, media, etc. You'll need to google up some example licenses.

If you're selling just a print then that's different again; the sale of the physical artefact doesn't confer any license or copyright, it's just a thing that you sold. It should have authorship and copyright-date information permanently marked on it (and a 'certificate of authenticity' can be useful in some markets but has no real meaning) but that's about it.

You don't (in the USA) need to register for copyright to assert your copyright via application of the symbol. It makes things much easier though if it should come to a court case.

[ROL]

What legal statement does one need to include with a photograph that is sold for publication.

As long as you retain copyright (assumimg you don't transfer it or assign unlimited rights), you stipulate the work's usage and remuneration scheme.

Also can the copyright symbol be applied without actually filing for a copyright ?

Sure, but it is likely meaningless in terms of recovering damages without filing.

See Copyrighting for more info.

[Leigh]

You sell "rights", not ownership. Rights are exclusive, meaning any rights not expressly transferred in the contract remain yours.

For example, you might sell "first North American rights", meaning that the buyer has the absolute right to publish the photo before anyone else can do so.

The responsibility for fulfilling this obligation lies with you, the seller, in that you will not license publication to anyone else in N.A. before the original purchaser has published it.

It's good to put a time limit on such arrangements, like "within six months of execution".
Otherwise the purchaser can withhold your work from the market by failing to publish. This could happen, for example, with bankruptcy of the buyer.

As others have said, under current law in the US (the DMCA) you absolutely own the copyright to your work from the instant of creation, with no requirement to place any copyright notice in any form. However, I prefer to add the copyright symbol, year and ID to anything that goes out.
As ROL said, registration is a good idea if you think you might actually need to resort to legal action for infringement.

The statement "All Rights Reserved" is dictated by the Pan-American Convention, which propagates copyright across all borders in the Western Hemisphere. It should be included, since our DMCA does not change that requirement.

Copyright in the US is administered by the Copyright Office, part of the Library of Congress. Further info at their website www.copyright.gov

- Leigh

[bdkphoto]

There is an excellent free webinar from ASMP/CCC on how to write licenses with Jeff Sedlik next week that may be of interest.

Link: http://tinyurl.com/cetbph4

[ViewCameraNut]

Any reputable company/publication should provide you with an contract stating what each party expects with purchase of the image. If not you need to email them stating what the terms of the sale are such as the image is for one time use, you retain the rights to it, etc... Congrats too! Sincerely, Mike C.

[Noel Peirce]

Thanks to all who responded to my question on publication rights.