Photographer's Copyright.

Copyright law gives photographers rights with regard to the photographs they create, to protect these photographs against unauthorised reproduction by others, and to entitle the photographer to the economic benefits of licensing their work for use. Without such rights enshrined in law it would be difficult if not impossible to make a living as a photographer and anyone could take images and use them without penalty or payment.

The following are exclusive rights with regard to photographs created -

• The right to reproduce the photograph
• The right to distribute copies of the photograph to the public
• The right to rent or lend the work to the public
• The right to broadcast the work to the public
• The right to make an adaptation of the image

Also as the copyright owner, the photographer can authorise others to perform any of the above.

Copyright in a work is infringed by a person who without the licence of the copyright owner, does, or authorises another to do, any of the above acts restricted by the copyright.

Copyright is automatically granted as soon as the photograph has been created. A photograph does not need to be registered in order for it to have copyright. In the UK there is no public authority with which to register photographs, but there is in the USA.  Even in the USA it is not essential to register a photograph for it to be protected by copyright.

All my work has embedded metadata identifying the copyright protection and any breaches will be vigorously pursued!