Do I OWN THE COPYRIGHT TO MY PHOTOS?
Image Licensing and Photography Usage Rights Explained
Are the language of photography licensing, image usage, and the resulting fees confusing for you? If so, let’s dive into this complex topic.
Photography usage rights, also known as licensing agreements, are contractual agreements between the licensor (the photographer) and the licensee (the client). Photography usage rights can be a tricky topic to navigate. After all, you’ve paid for your session; shouldn’t that mean you own the images? Technically, no. But that doesn’t mean you aren’t allowed to use them.
Based on U.S. copyright laws, the original creator or artist owns the copyright, whether that person is an author, photographer, graphic designer, painter, or educator. The original creator charges a fee to a client (that’s you) in order to license his/her created work, and only for its intended purpose. Copyright laws protect the original creator’s intellectual property from theft, copying, and selling—essentially, stealing the design and/or profits from the creator. Photo usage ownership falls into this category.
Photo Credit: Gabrielle Henderson / @gabriellefaithhenderson
Why Photography Usage Rights Are Complicated
Here are a few examples of how photography usage rights get complicated and why language clarity is so important:
Protecting Against Reselling: I charge a photography fee that includes my labor, materials, and overhead, as well as a licensing fee (based on intended usage by the client) for a client’s personal branding photos.
Let’s say my communicates her intent to use the images in her marketing materials. But she gets a lucrative offer to sell the images I photographed in order to earn extra money, and without prior consent from me, the original creator and copyright owner. Because that use wasn’t the original, intended purpose of the photography project, it’s a breach of the license. As the photographer, I would have charged more for the project had I fully understood my client’s end goal. This situation is considered a copyright infringement and can result in a lawsuit, which we’d all prefer to avoid, right?
Protecting Against Misuse: Let’s use the same example of a branding session. My client loves her branding images and is so successful in her business that she lands a feature article in a major magazine. She provides one of my images for free, without prior consent to a magazine publication for editorial purposes.
Although public relations is considered part of a marketing strategy, image licensing doesn't apply in this case. Why? The magazine is a separate business entity; I licensed the photos to my client, not the magazine. Legally, the magazine would need to pay me, the photographer, to use the images in a written feature article or send its hired photographer to capture my client's photos.
How to Legally Protect Yourself
First, be completely upfront with your photographer about the intended purpose of your photographs to avoid issues later.
A licensing agreement details the intricacies of photo usage. Licensing agreements help alleviate confusion about how, where, and when the photo being granted permission can be used. There are many licensing agreements, but I will focus on the ones I utilize the most in my work:
Commercial - Usage of photos for clients’ monetary gains in brochures, catalogs, or other promotional materials. This agreement may have a specific time frame or can include lifetime usage. This type of agreement is common usage by business owners.
Digital - Photography usage within the confines of the digital world, i.e., online on websites, e-newsletters, educational material, and blogs.
Print Rights - Family photos are a great example of this, extended to tangible printed items for personal use but not commercial use. These agreements include a print release distributed by the photographer and signed by you, the client! A print release means you can print your photos and display them, mail them out in holiday cards, etc. However, they cannot be used for commercial purposes, like your family recipe blog that’s financially supported by advertisers.
One-Time Use - An image sold to a client for a specified one-time use. An example may be a headshot for an author’s book dust cover and only for the book’s first edition, but no other usage beyond that.
Image Usage Pricing
The pricing for image usage varies depending on the usage type, the location where the client will be using the photo, and market size (how many people would see the photo(s)). The licensing agreement specifies the agreed-upon parameters. While these agreements benefit the photographer financially, they also protect you, the client, from copyright infringement.
Although every photographer has a different fee structure, it’s essential to be upfront with your intended use to avoid hot water later.
Remember to read your contract carefully to understand your rights and terms of usage. When in doubt, reach out to your photographer for clarification.