Browncoat
Senior Member
If you read the terms and conditions of just about any website, contest, or contract related to photography, odds are you've come across a rights grab. And if you participate in social media at all, you've been subjected to losing the rights to your work...and didn't even know it.
What is a rights grab?
Basically, it is an attempt to take away the most valuable aspect of your work as a photographer: your copyright. In short, contract language is used to pry ownership of your photo from where it belongs (in your hands) to someone else. This is usually accomplished in one of two ways:
Unsocial media
500 million people are on Facebook. It can be a powerful (and free) marketing tool to showcase your work, especially in conjunction with your own website. Flickr is another popular photo sharing website. Just be aware that 99% of the time, if you are using any service to share your work online, you have given up your ownership rights. Check the terms of service, it's in there.
These sites must legally get your permission to share your photos with the rest of the online community. They surely aren't going to pay you for any kind of license or usage, so there is a built-in transfer of power from you to them.
If you're using Facebook as a business tool, you must ask yourself if the image you are uploading are worth the potential risk of losing. Your work may be shared by others without your consent or knowledge and used in ways you don't approve of. Trust me, I've dealt with it firsthand.
Live events
Venues are getting smarter these days, as are performers. Even if you're hired as an official event photographer, you still may be subject to having to give up your work for free. It's becoming more an more common where management companies (such as promoters) are requiring photographers to sign an agreement where they can use your photos without having to pay for them.
For example, if you photograph a live band at a concert hall, the venue has all rights to use your work...and so does the band. Apple is currently developing infrared technology that will emit a signal during live concerts that will disable the camera on the iPhone. No more uploading photos and video of you and your friends on YouTube while at the concert.
What can you do about it?
1. The most obvious answer here is very simple: read the contract. If you can't make heads or tails of it, then don't sign or don't create an account for that online service. Once you sign, you're bound by the terms outlined in the contract, plain and simple. And you can be darned sure that it's not designed to be favorable to you in any way. This is true for any online photo sharing service, written contracts, and photo contests.
In terms of online services and contests, you have no bargaining power. You either accept or decline, period. But if you're working with a client, be prepared to negotiate. If this is a corporate client, you can be certain that their legal department has drawn up papers in their favor as well. This doesn't mean that the document is written in stone, however. I've found that most are willing to work with you.
2. You also need to make some honest assessments with your images. Don't think that you have to horde every photo you take. If you want to maintain some sort of stock library, you need to ask yourself if this particular image would be worth anything to another potential client.
Let's pretend you landed a job to photograph a small airline. They have about a dozen prop planes and a small staff. They've hired you to take some photos of their planes and portraits of the office people. The airline will want the rights to these photos so they can use them in promotional materials. Do you want to keep the rights for these photos? No, probably not. The photos aren't worth anything to anyone else.
3. Be smart and protect your online photos with embedded data. You can certainly watermark your images, but the real protection lies in the file info itself. Neither of these will prevent image theft, but it is somewhat of a deterrent. Put your copyright info in there along with your contact email or a phone number. Most publishers are vigilant when it comes to checking this data and will verify who the author is. If your work has been stolen and submitted by someone else for publishing, they need to know how to get in touch with you.
4. Don't be afraid to say no. Only you can determine if losing your rights is worth it or not. Is the pay high enough? Will you benefit from the exposure of winning a contest or being published? Is it really necessary to share this image online? You must be able to weigh the pros and cons and figure it out for yourself. Like I said before, if it doesn't really seem to be worth the trouble...it probably isn't.
5. Read some more. If you want some incredibly detailed info on all of this, here are a couple of great resources:
ASMP Professional Business Practices in Photography
Best Business Practices for Photographers
What is a rights grab?
Basically, it is an attempt to take away the most valuable aspect of your work as a photographer: your copyright. In short, contract language is used to pry ownership of your photo from where it belongs (in your hands) to someone else. This is usually accomplished in one of two ways:
- Complete transfer of all rights to another party.
- Creating some kind of general use license that essentially leaves you with nothing.
- transfer
- assign
- license
- irrevocable
- distribute
- sub-license
- prepare derivative works
Unsocial media
500 million people are on Facebook. It can be a powerful (and free) marketing tool to showcase your work, especially in conjunction with your own website. Flickr is another popular photo sharing website. Just be aware that 99% of the time, if you are using any service to share your work online, you have given up your ownership rights. Check the terms of service, it's in there.
These sites must legally get your permission to share your photos with the rest of the online community. They surely aren't going to pay you for any kind of license or usage, so there is a built-in transfer of power from you to them.
If you're using Facebook as a business tool, you must ask yourself if the image you are uploading are worth the potential risk of losing. Your work may be shared by others without your consent or knowledge and used in ways you don't approve of. Trust me, I've dealt with it firsthand.
Live events
Venues are getting smarter these days, as are performers. Even if you're hired as an official event photographer, you still may be subject to having to give up your work for free. It's becoming more an more common where management companies (such as promoters) are requiring photographers to sign an agreement where they can use your photos without having to pay for them.
For example, if you photograph a live band at a concert hall, the venue has all rights to use your work...and so does the band. Apple is currently developing infrared technology that will emit a signal during live concerts that will disable the camera on the iPhone. No more uploading photos and video of you and your friends on YouTube while at the concert.
What can you do about it?
1. The most obvious answer here is very simple: read the contract. If you can't make heads or tails of it, then don't sign or don't create an account for that online service. Once you sign, you're bound by the terms outlined in the contract, plain and simple. And you can be darned sure that it's not designed to be favorable to you in any way. This is true for any online photo sharing service, written contracts, and photo contests.
In terms of online services and contests, you have no bargaining power. You either accept or decline, period. But if you're working with a client, be prepared to negotiate. If this is a corporate client, you can be certain that their legal department has drawn up papers in their favor as well. This doesn't mean that the document is written in stone, however. I've found that most are willing to work with you.
2. You also need to make some honest assessments with your images. Don't think that you have to horde every photo you take. If you want to maintain some sort of stock library, you need to ask yourself if this particular image would be worth anything to another potential client.
Let's pretend you landed a job to photograph a small airline. They have about a dozen prop planes and a small staff. They've hired you to take some photos of their planes and portraits of the office people. The airline will want the rights to these photos so they can use them in promotional materials. Do you want to keep the rights for these photos? No, probably not. The photos aren't worth anything to anyone else.
3. Be smart and protect your online photos with embedded data. You can certainly watermark your images, but the real protection lies in the file info itself. Neither of these will prevent image theft, but it is somewhat of a deterrent. Put your copyright info in there along with your contact email or a phone number. Most publishers are vigilant when it comes to checking this data and will verify who the author is. If your work has been stolen and submitted by someone else for publishing, they need to know how to get in touch with you.
4. Don't be afraid to say no. Only you can determine if losing your rights is worth it or not. Is the pay high enough? Will you benefit from the exposure of winning a contest or being published? Is it really necessary to share this image online? You must be able to weigh the pros and cons and figure it out for yourself. Like I said before, if it doesn't really seem to be worth the trouble...it probably isn't.
5. Read some more. If you want some incredibly detailed info on all of this, here are a couple of great resources:
ASMP Professional Business Practices in Photography
Best Business Practices for Photographers
Last edited:
