Copyright.

OK, I’m going to blog about this since it’s fresh in my mind. This afternoon I attended a short seminar on copyright law. Now, I already had a pretty good understanding of it, but this seminar kind of reinforced what I already knew.

As a photographer, the moment I click the shutter and that image is recorded on my memory card, that photograph is copyrighted. I have 100% legal right to give the photo away, license it to whomever with whatever conditions we agree to, or even to sell the rights to the image. The only time I need to register the copyright is if I need to litigate for copyright infringement.

Just for the record, I never give up or transfer copyright on any images. I will, however, offer a variety of licensing options based on compensation.

Sadly, I see more people “borrowing” images from other peoples websites. Some are even representing other people’s work as their own. That’s lazy, sad, pathetic, and just plain dishonest. Those people need their melons thumped.

Thanks for reading and be sure to check out some new portraits I added.

-Ken