Forget the prints! Always purchase the copyright to your photos! She loves sharing legal and business tips with other bloggers and biz owners who want to grow their blog and make sure they're doing it legally. When she's not blogging, she works full time doing estate work for a bank and also does freelance social media management on the side.
This is an excellent summary of a very complex topic. I educate my clients on this topic all the time. In my release we also talk about archival use. Thanks again for tackling this topic. Well done. I have questions on a similar topic. I attend comic conventions all year round where I collect autographs of actors from my favorite shows and movies.
Since I am a scrapbooker and I would love to scrapbook as well as preserve my photos and prints digitally, would it be legal to scan such items? Thanks for the article, it does help clarify what to do with those old OlinMills photo.
Thanks for asking such a great question, Jennifer! Not ideal. This type of memorabilia involving celebrities, franchises, or other recognizable imagery will land you in trouble faster than regular personal photos because they apply to more people which means they stand to lose out on more money so I would get permission if I were in your shoes.
Hope that helps! It does. Luckily, some artists are convention regulars so I may be able to ask post-signing. Thank you for the clarifications. Fair use is not a last resort. It is a right. And this is the advice of major organizations dealing with art and artists, such as the College Art Association.
According to the U. Can I demand that they delete them once I have been provided my copies? Thx —. Some service providers will keep a backup on file for a while just in case something happens and you request copies, but not all do.
Generally, the larger volume they do, the less they keep on file. Always check the rights agreement, and if you see anything about copyright transfer, find a new service provider stat!
They said that they have done their legal research on this. Hiya back, Mark! The same privileges are generally extended to libraries and public archives — again, under special circumstances. I cannot say for sure if any of this applies to them. It may be that they have found a loophole somewhere, or that they claim fair use, but in my mind, a reproduction is a reproduction, regardless of its format. Here is a quote directly from copyright. These fears are not unreasonable, because copy shops have been sued for reproducing copyrighted works and have been required to pay substantial damages for infringing copyrighted works.
The policy established by a shop is a business decision and risk assessment that the business is entitled to make, because the business may face liability if they reproduce a work even if they did not know the work was copyrighted.
In the case of photographs, it is sometimes difficult to determine who owns the copyright and there may be little or no information about the owner on individual copies. Even if a person hires a photographer to take pictures of a wedding, for example, the photographer will own the copyright in the photographs unless the copyright in the photographs is transferred, in writing and signed by the copyright owner, to another person.
The subject of the photograph generally has nothing to do with the ownership of the copyright in the photograph. Information about fair use may be found at Fair Use Index.
Ultimately, only a federal court can determine whether a particular use is, in fact, a fair use under the law. The quality of the scans here are some of the highest we've seen, and while you do have to pay slightly more than average certainly not much more what you get back is well worth the money.
EverPresent offers services to scan photos, slides, negatives, old film, and some of the more obscure film formats too. It'll enhance the scans to a good quality, and return them to you via courier shipping. It's an excellent service, and gives you all the options you could need. Shipping is pretty quick too, and you can actually drop photos into physical stores or take advantage of doorstep pick-up if you live in the tri-state area.
We also love the extra services EverPresent offers - it will design and create photo books for you, from your scans, and will also offer to organize the digital photos you already have.
Again, the costs can add up, but we find it's better to spend the money and get it all sorted, rather than get not-quite-as-good results from cheaper, less comprehensive services. Our only real issue is that there's a lack of clarity over the digitization process, and the timeline for when it'll all get done, and we didn't find customer service as helpful as some other providers. The end results, though, are superb.
Head over to EverPresent for a quote on the work that you need. You'll find it well priced, and the quality of scans excellent. You can pop into a store too. EverPresent is a well-rated service, with dozens of positive reviews across Yelp and Facebook. On both platforms, users praised the open communication style of the company, and most seem to be satisfied with the quality of files they received. Additionally, many users shared personal stories of how the service benefited their family and overall well-being.
The few but persistent negative reviews expressed frustration in the long wait times, as the service had slowed down during the coronavirus pandemic amid several lockdown restrictions. Some rare users also had trouble communicating with the staff, leading to a lot of disappointment and stress. If you're looking for value on bulk orders of photos or slides, ScanCafe is the place to go.
Not only does it offer a range of 'value kits' to help you get large numbers of photos, slides, and videos digitized, you can also choose from a variety of services to suit your needs.
In our tests, ScanCafe fared well in terms of overall value, speed of service, and the actual images that came back. The average turn-around time is about days, with UPS shipping, and what you get back is good quality. ScanCafe is especially good at removing scratches and speckles from older images, cleaning up and smoothing out photos to make them look more modern.
It isn't the best for color correction and sharpening, but if you're simply looking for cheap cleaning up of your images, it's great. ScanCafe also does VHS, 35mm film and other media. Overall we love the ScanCafe website too, as it's easy to use, although the pricing options aren't quite as clear as they are on some competitor sites.
If you're looking for bulk digitization of photos, we highly recommend checking out ScanCafe. Go there direct for a quote.
The service has a whopping 3, reviews on TrustPilot, most of which are positive. Many users were happy with the service and several reviews appreciate the good quality of work delivered. Users also found the staff helpful and communicative despite the occasionally delayed package. On the other hand, the negative reviews are mostly centered around delays, and surprisingly, payment issues.
Some users had trouble completing the transaction and experienced a lot of technical errors while paying for the finished product. Users on Yelp were particularly unhappy with the quality of the scanned files, and some even compared the scanned photos to others delivered by a different scanning service. If you want total control over the scanning of your old photos, then GoPhoto is the best option.
Not only can you choose the exact number of images or films that you'd like to be processed, but you can also look at the results online and only pay for the ones you want to keep. We love this about GoPhoto. Once your photos have been scanned, you'll be given access to an online album, with images sorted smartly by the GoPhoto team. You can then look at each one, inspect the quality and subject of the photo, and decide which ones you want to keep and which ones you'd rather not pay for.
The quality of the images GoPhoto creates is good, and the turnaround time is above average too. Sure, you'll pay a little more, and the website is very dated and a little tougher to navigate, but overall we like the service on offer here. The fact that they organize and sort through your original photos, and do their best to return the images in the same order, albums, and groups you mailed them in is a nice little bonus too.
If you're looking to scan a handful of images, or have a more specific order, GoPhoto is a great option. The service is excellent too, as is the online checking. In total, there are just 13 across Yelp and Facebook. A lot of the reviews are quite old, too. But most of them focus on negative aspects of their experience, namely slow response times.
If you're looking to go completely digital, Digital Memories is a good option. Once this company has scanned your photos, slides, VHS tapes etc, it will host them online for up to six months, allowing you to access them and download images to any internet-connected device.
The catch here, however, is that you pay for this online storage in addition to the cost of the actual scanning, so it is a more expensive option. What we recommend is that you get your images back and look at your own Cloud storage options, like Google Drive, OneDrive, or iCloud.
Digital Memories offers a decent range of scanning services for all kinds of media, and has various pricing options for bundles, a la carte scanning, and more. In fact, we found the pricing - and the rather dated website - a little confusing, so you should shop around before committing to scans from Digital Memories.
The quality of the work here is good, and the turnaround is about average for photo scanning services. In the digital age, copyright law and its relationship with photography has become increasingly more important to understand, and easier to enforce. Keep this photography and copyright law guide in your back pocket. But hey, fingers crossed you never have to use it.
Log in Get Started. Format Team September 20, First of all, what exactly is photo copyright? Work-for-Hire is an exception to this rule. A Work-for-Hire relationship is created in two situations: The photographer is an employee hired to take photographs for an employer.
A photojournalist employed by a newspaper is an example of Work-for-Hire. However, a wedding or portrait photographer hired for one specific event is not Work-for-Hire. The photographer is hired and signs a written contract that specifically states that the work is to be considered Work-for-Hire.
The year of creation. The name of the author or copyright holder. Does adding a watermark help boost copyright images?
How do you copyright your photography with a watermark? Grid watermarks that cover the entire photo almost always deter image theft.
This tends to be a good option for portrait photography. So, do you even need to register your copyright at all for protection under image copyright laws?
What if an illustration is made using your work and then used commercially? Does that count as copyright infringement? What else can you do if your photography is used without permission? Option 1: Request a photo credit Since the infringer is already providing a decent marketing outlet for your work on their own website, you may want some credit where credit is due. Option 2: Prepare a DCMA take-down notice This notice must be in writing and signed by the copyright owner, identifying the copyrighted photo that was infringed.
The DMCA website explains more here. Option 4: Hire a lawyer to send a demand letter Although this can lead to increased tensions, the weight of your demand letter is dramatically increased if it comes from an attorney.
Option 5: File a Copyright Infringement lawsuit This is your most aggressive option and will involve pursuing legal remedies by filing suit. Option 6: Do nothing To save yourself time and effort fighting copyright infringement, you always have the option to do nothing. The future of photography and copyright law In the digital age, copyright law and its relationship with photography has become increasingly more important to understand, and very possible to enforce.
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