Mary’s mom picks up her daughter’s senior portrait package from the photographer and brings the photographs home to show Mary.  The pictures are every bit as good as they looked in the proofs, even better, the photographer took the time to clean up the image and worked hard to make it something Mary will be proud to show her family and friends.
Mary loves the photos.  The first thing she does is scan the images into her computer and post the images on her Facebook and MySpace pages.  She emails the image to her boyfriend and to her uncle who is in the service.  Everybody thinks her portrait is beautiful.

Mary’s mom counts up the wallet size prints and realizes she ordered less than she needs to hand out to family.  “No problem,” Mary tells her mom, “I’ll print some out from my computer.”

Since Mary’s mom paid for the photographs, and now belong to her and Mary, she can do anything she wants with the images.  They are photographs of her daughter and the photographer was hired to take her pictures, so they completely belong to her and her family.  Is she right?

Listed below is what the Professional Photographer’s Association says about the ownership of professionally created images.

Things to remember about copyright:

  • Copyright is a property right.
  • Just because you buy a print does not mean you have purchased the copyright.
  • Professional photographers are the smallest of small copyright holders.
  • Under the Federal Copyright Act of 1976, photographs are protected by copyright from the moment of creation.
  • Photographers have the exclusive right to reproduce their photographs (right to control the making of copies).
  • Unless you have permission from the photographer, you can’t copy, distribute (no scanning and sending them to others), publicly display (no putting them online), or create derivative works from photographs.
  • Professional photographers are dependent on their ability to control the reproduction of the photographs they create.
  • It affects their income and the livelihood of their families.
  • Even small levels of infringement—copying a photo without permission—can have a devastating impact on a photographer’s ability to make a living.
  • Copyright infringements—reproducing photos without permission—can result in civil and criminal penalties.

Every professional photographer realizes scanning and copying happens all the time.  For the most part photographers turn a blind eye to the growing concern since confronting a good client is at best uncomfortable.  Clients feel they have done nothing wrong, in fact, are angry when a photographer brings up the copyright issue.  The law is 100% on the side of the photographer, but popular opinion is 100% on the side of those who copy the images.  The same thing is happening in the music industry and with all intellectual property.

Put copyright in perspective:

  • 65% of PPA photographers are self-employed photographers relying exclusively on photography as their primary source of income.
  • 47% of member studios rely on reprints as a profitable source of income.

Photographers have one concern musicians don’t have when their work is copied.  When a digital file is copied there is little or no quality loss.  When a photograph is scanned there is always a loss of image quality.  The color is not as vibrant and the image tends to gain contrast. The image quality the photographer worked so hard to create is altered in the scan.   The thought that makes every photographer cringe is that ‘Mary’ will show her copied and home printed picture to her friends and tell them proudly “ABC Photography did these for me.”  Photographers assume he or she has lost potential business because a prospective customer was shown a poor copy of their work.

Within the last few years photographers have changed the way they price their work.  More changes are on the way.  Many photographers are charging more for the finished photographs, limiting individual print orders to sell more ‘package’ print options, and including the digital files in their higher end packages.

Professional organizations, such as Professional Photographers of America, are stepping up efforts to protect member’s rights.  These organizations search social websites for professional photographer’s images and initiate legal action when sufficient evidence of copyright infringement is found.  So be careful.  Your photograph may not be completely your own.