 Charles G. Borden |
Location Copyright Question I have numerous photos of lighthouses, National Park Scenes etc. I am sure I am not the only who has very similar if not identical shots of these structures (angles, lighting, etc.) Is it copyright infrigment to sell these photos even if they are like others?
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Vincent Lowe |
Interesting question! I can't see how anyone could claim copyright if someone else happened to be standing next to him/her and took the same shot at exactly the same time. Each person would have an original slide or neg. and could show this if challenged. I've been at many classic tourist viewpoints along with dozens of others taking the same shot - the trick is to try to be a little different. Or try to find that special place that nobody else knows about (not many of those left in the English Lake District!) Often though it's the 'straight' shots that sell, so I try to get both!
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Jeff S. Kennedy |
If you took the shot you own the copyright on that shot. You can do with it as you please. The only time you might be infringing that I can think of is if the shot requires a model/property release.
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Michelle B. Lee |
It is NOT copyright infringement if you took the picture, no matter how many other people have taken the exact same picture. The originality requirement in the copyright law requires only that the work be original to the creator, not that the work itself be unlike any other work ever created. In fact, if two people who never met and never saw each others' work wrote the exact same poem, each would be entitled to copyright protection in that poem, and there would be no infrigement by either of them. The trick of course would be proving that they came up with the poem on their own and never saw the other one. With the photo that is considerably easier since you have the negative to prove that you created the work yourself. In this way copyright differs from trademark and patent (which it is often confused with) because each of those areas of law require what is protected to be unique. In copyright "originality" does not equate with uniqueness, it solely deals with whether it was originated by the photographer. Hope this helps.
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Brian H. |
How do I prove that I've taken the picture when I am using a digital camera? There is no negative. Thanks.
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Wing Wong |
Please note: IANAL (I am not a lawyer, but I happen to know some. ^_-) No, it is not copyright infringement to take pictures of common places, even if they have been photographed to death before. It IS infringement if you were to photograph someone else's photograph. In some cases, yes, you would need a "property release" from the property owner to take a picture. Examples of such a place would be Hearst Castle in California. In the case of the "digital negative", it is true that you don't have a negative per se. However, the JPEG/TIFF/Raw file taken by the camera will embedd camera specific information into the file. This information is called EXIF data. Basically, it contains the camera make/model, the date the picture was taken, the exposure, focal length, f-stop, iso, etc. Cheap cameras may not have this information, but all pro cameras do. RAW format files are more of a negative than TIFF/JPEG because these files represent the data off of the sensor before any processing has taken place. Most camera makers will embedd a one-way hash into the image data for validation. I believe there is such a RAW file validation tool in the works for Canon raw files. Basically, the lowdown is this: when you take your pictures digitally, backup the original files before doing ANYTHING to them. don't rotate them, don't color correct them, don't resize them. Just copy them and burn them as-is onto a CD. Store that as your "Digital Negatives". Then work from a copy and save the culled and cleaned up images on another CD as your "post-processed images". When you register your copyright, you will want to register with a copy of both before and after CDs. One for proof that you took the original picture and another for proof of your production picture. Once again, IANAL.
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