Copyright basics:
You have legal copyrights to every image you shoot from the moment you snap the shutter. You do not need to register the image. You do not even need to print your copyright on or next to your image when you publish it (i.e.: "©2003, Barry Lipman"). However, in practice, you will not be able to enforce your rights unless you register your images.
Why register?
Without registration, you are only entitled to fair use on an infringed image.
With registration, you are entitled to fair use, attorney's fees, and punitive damages as well.
Without registration, you will most likely wind up paying your attorney far more than you could ever hope to win back from the infringing party in the unlikely event you manage to bring suit and win.
With registration, you will often be successful in negotiating an acceptable out-of-court settlement to avoid a long and costly trial. Registration makes the stakes far too high for a solvent infringer to risk a lawsuit.
How to register:
You can send in any number of images as part of a single collection, all covered by one form and by one $30.00 fee. You can burn them as JPEG files on a CD and send thousands of images in at once as a single collection. Another technique is to photograph a page of twenty slides on a light table, thereby putting all twenty images onto one slide. A page of twenty such slides will cover four hundred images. You can send in as many pages as you like.
Fill out the form, write out a check, and send them in with your images via certified mail (return receipt requested), UPS, or Federal Express (AOD -- Acknowledgment of Delivery) to:
Library of Congress Copyright Office
101 Independence Avenue
S.E. Washington, D.C. 20559-6000
Phone: (202) 707-3000
Forms:
Click here to download a PDF format version of the registration form.
Protect your rights:
Remember this: all rights not specifically granted remain with the original copyright holder. Whenever you send an image out for publication, stipulate the exact terms of use, thereby creating a delivery memo For example, grant the publisher one-time publishing rights in his American edition of his magazine in exchange for so many dollars. This would automatically not include web rights, reprint rights, or rights to any additional use. Stipulate that the rights are granted only if you are paid within (say) ninety days of publication. This will greatly facilitate your getting paid in a timely fashion, as they lose all rights should they decide to slow-pay you, or to not pay you at all.
For more information on copyrights, including information on registering previously published images, please click here:
 |
Follow the "Copyright" link and you will find everything you could ever possibly want to know and more.