A number of celebrities, including Jennifer Lopez, Victoria Beckham, Justin Bieber, Nicki Minaj, and Gigi Hadid, have recently been sued by paparazzi for sharing photos of themselves on their social media accounts.
Since few of us are followed around by paparazzi, you may not think this is relevant to you, but the same laws apply to photos you commission, like school and wedding photos.
By law, with few exceptions, a photographer who is an independent contractor will own the copyright in the images unless there is a written contract to the contrary.
In other words, if you hire someone to take senior photos of your daughter, that person or business will own the copyright.
The photographer retaining the copyright means not only that you and your daughter can’t make commercial reproductions of the photos, but also that neither of you can have prints made by anyone other than the original photographer. Further, neither of you can post the images on social networking sites such as Facebook or Instagram.
We’ve represented many clients on both sides of disputes over this issue. Photographers are often upset to discover customers infringing their copyrights on the internet.
Customers, on the other hand, tend not to realize they can’t copy or post the photos they feel they paid for until they receive an angry communication from the photographer or the photo processing lab refuses to make prints.
The solution to this problem is to have a contract that clearly spells out the terms of the arrangement.
If you’re the photographer, make clear to your customers that, unless they purchase additional rights, they cannot reproduce the photos at all, whether on social media sites or at their local photo lab.
If you’re the customer, make sure you have a written agreement with the photographer that spells out what your rights are. Most photographers will be willing to provide a license or assignment, but you will be expected to pay for those rights.
Please feel free to contact us if you have any questions about these issues or any others relating to copyright.
Photo by Miss Zhang on Unsplash
