When one takes a photograph the photographer owns the copyright of that photograph.

This right is protected by Irish law – specifically the Copyright and Related Rights Act, 2000.

What does it mean in real terms?

If you hire me to take photographs for you in a personal capacity, say to photograph your wedding or take some family portraits, those photographs are covered by copyright. I give you a licence to use them in a personal capacity only. You can download them, print them, give them to your friends and family as gifts, share them on your personal instagram, facebook, bebo… whatever! What you can’t do is give them to a third party or use them for any commercial purpose. You also can’t apply your own edits or filters — that would count as copyright infringement.

How might this play out in real life?

Say you got married, it was amazing! The photos are amazing! Your venue asks for your wedding photographs so they can share them on their social media, or put them on their website.

Don’t do it! At least not yet. There is a simple way to handle it properly.

So what should you do?

If you are happy for the third party (in this example the venue) to share the pictures just ask them to get in touch with me. As the copyright holder, I decide whether to grant permission and set the terms for use — including any licence fee.

That’s because the use of the photographs changes from personal to commercial once a business is involved.

If you would rather your photographs not be shared on anyones platforms, mine or anyone else’s, that is totally fine. I always respect peoples preference for privacy. This has nothing to do with copyright. It’s just being decent.

Licensing for commercial purposes.

If you hire me for a commercial job, we’ll discuss how and where the images will be used during the quotation stage. You’ll then receive a licence to use those photographs for the agreed purposes and time period.

If you came across a photograph of mine, and have discovered it is copyrighted and would like to use it please drop me an email outlining how you would like to use it. I will come back with a quote for licencing and if you are happy to proceed will send you the licensed image.

 

Here are some flowers I grew to say thank you for respecting copyright!

thank you for respecting copyright