Copyleft

[BetterSense]

As a gift, I shot a wedding event for a friend from church. I told her that I would shoot the event and compile an album of 5x7s for her. I'm about done with the work but since I'm only a hobbyist I have no experience with copyright issues. I would like to be able to give the photos to her and give her all rights to make copies and give away the copies to family and so on. I think that means I can award the copyright to her, but then I want to keep some images for my portfolio, so I don't know how it works. Copyright law makes no sense to me and I know nothing about it. This is the first thing that has left my darkroom so it's all new to me. What would be normal?

 

[archphoto]

You will keep the copyright as the maker of the original material.
You just give her an user-right, that is: the right to use your negative to multiply in print, but in case of a publication in a magazine, how unlikely it seems now, the credits belong to you as the maker of the original material.

In other words: you can not give-away your copyrights, just the right to use your material.

Hope this helps,

Peter

 

[Paul Sorensen]

In other words: you can not give-away your copyrights, just the right to use your material.

You absolutely can give away your copyright, how do you think Michael Jackson ended up owning Beatles songs? (Well, he actually bought them, he was not given them, I am sure!) I believe you do not want to give away your copyrights, however, I think that the advice is correct, you keep copyright and give them rights to use them in all of the ways that you wish to.

 

[JBrunner]

I do what is called " a print license" or "license to print". You can include all types of usage in such a license by simply stating allowances in the license. This makes a long and impressive sounding list of things they can do, and copyright issues seldom come up. When lay persons "want the copyright" they seldom know what the hell they're talking about because few lay people (and many photographers as well) actually understand copyright. What they really want is to be able to use the photographs. They don't need to own the copyright to be able to do that. Grant them the license and be done with it. Don't give away your copyright, ever.

 

[polyglot]

You can give away the copyright but shouldn't if you can avoid it. You license the images, same as you would if you were shooting them professionally, you just give them more permissions under the license. So typically when I shoot a wedding as a favour, I give an unlimited license to print, reproduce and backup the images for personal use but no license to publish.

Write it down and include the written & signed license with whatever you give them.

 

[ntenny]

I researched this issue a little bit, including discussions with Actual Copyright Attorneys, a few years ago when I wanted to assign copyright on some stuff I'd written to the public domain. (Apparently it worked, as some text from that material has wandered into a Wikipedia entry.)

You *can* transfer your copyright to someone else, but that means transferring *all* the rights, so it becomes legally as if the recipient had created the work themselves. It doesn't sound like this is what you want to do. As others have suggested, you want to deliver the photos to your friend with an explicit licence spelling out what rights you're granting to her.

Unless you think there's a real chance of the situation giving rise to a formal legal dispute, a document stating your intentions in clear language should do the trick. If you really want to make sure that you're covered in case you have to go to court over the use of these images, you need to involve a copyright lawyer in drafting the licence, but from the first message it doesn't sound like this is likely---you just want to make sure there's no confusion about who owns what, among parties who can all be expected to act in good faith.

In your position, I'd write down what you mean---"I'm granting you the rights to do X, Y, and Z with these images, and I retain the rights to do A, B, and C"---have all parties involved sign off on that document, and feel pretty comfortable with it.

-NT

 

[JBrunner]

I

In your position, I'd write down what you mean---"I'm granting you the rights to do X, Y, and Z with these images, and I retain the rights to do A, B, and C"---have all parties involved sign off on that document, and feel pretty comfortable with it.

-NT

All very good, but you don't need and in most cases shouldn't write down the rights you retain. You already have the full copyright from the moment of creation, and the document is more effective by granting certain things, rather than claiming specific rights as retained by you. That can be interpreted against you, as in you granted all right except what you wrote down. Leave all your rights in force. Grant the other party specific things. This is, in general, the advice I have been given.

Of course consult an attorney if it is seriously important. I'm not one. I could play one on TV, but it hasn't happened yet.

 

[MikeSeb]

Grant them the license and be done with it. Don't give away your copyright, ever.

All you really need to know for the current situation.

Take the advice on offer here as the start of your effort to educate yourself about copyright. You can drive a car without knowing how an internal-combustion engine works, just as you can create intellectual property with potential value to others (your friend did accept your gift, after all) without understanding copyright; but in neither case is ignorance wise!

 

[Steve Smith]

You absolutely can give away your copyright.

You can indeed.

I photographed a friends wedding last year and sent him the negatives with a letter stating who I was, who the wedding was between and where it was shot and a statement transferring the copyright over to him in full.

I did this so he could take the negatives into a lab near him and have some prints made.

Don't give away your copyright, ever.

I could see no reason why I should need to keep the copyright myself so I gave it to him.

However, if you do want to retain copyright, just write a letter giving rights to make copies.

Of course consult an attorney if it is seriously important. I'm not one. I could play one on TV, but it hasn't happened yet.

When it does, please post it on FaceTube, YouSpace or MyBook.





Steve.

 

[MattKing]

Unless you think there's a real chance of the situation giving rise to a formal legal dispute, a document stating your intentions in clear language should do the trick. If you really want to make sure that you're covered in case you have to go to court over the use of these images, you need to involve a copyright lawyer in drafting the licence, but from the first message it doesn't sound like this is likely---you just want to make sure there's no confusion about who owns what, among parties who can all be expected to act in good faith.

In your position, I'd write down what you mean---"I'm granting you the rights to do X, Y, and Z with these images, and I retain the rights to do A, B, and C"---have all parties involved sign off on that document, and feel pretty comfortable with it.

-NT

Two suggestions, but remember that it's best to get specialized help, and I am not a copyright lawyer:

1) say "I'm granting you the rights to do X, Y, and Z with these images, and I retain all other rights";

2) get them to pay you $1.00 for the rights, and confirm payment in the letter which is both dated and signed by everybody.

With respect to the first point, remember that you can always expand the gift later.

With respect to the $1.00, it's a device, but it really has some important legal ramifications.

The biggest reason for making this effective legally, is if someone else tries to misuse your work, and you need to show that the gift given was limited.

Matt