The topic of copyrights comes up from time to time and it's probably one of the least understood areas of the law. I posted the following on another forum and then I thought that there might be a few people out there who would like to read it. Here it goes.
Maybe I can shed some light on the subject, as The Engravers Journal has the dubious reputation as the most (copyright) infringed publication in the Recognition & Identification industry, so we've had plenty of experience with the subject.
Any work (written, photographic, artwork, sound recording, etc.) created after 1-1-78 is automatically copyrighted for the creator's/author's lifetime + 75 years, or in the case of a collective work (more than one author) it's 75 years after the death of the last surviving author.
In "work for hire" situations such as hiring an employee to create original artwork, the copyright generally subsists with the person or entity which commissioned the work and not the artist or author. Work for hire is automatically copyrighted for 95 years after publication or 120 years after creation.
The copyright law changed in 1977 and then later. Under the current law most old (pre 1978) works are protected for the same time span as post-1978 works.
Some works are copyrighted as a "statutory" copyright, meaning the copyright owner has sent in a $30 fee and two copies of the published work to the U.S. Copyright office. That's the best copyright because it's absolute proof that the work is copyrighted.
A "common law" copyright is not registered so the burden of proof as to who created the work and when is on the owner of the work.
Under the old law, if anyone infringed on your copyright, you had to prove what your actual monetary damages were, which was difficult or impossible as the rip-off people usually aren't very gracious about opening up their books to you.
The new law introduces the concept of "statutory damages" which allows the owner of the copyrighted work to assess financial damages without having to prove actual monetary damages. The law also provides for "triple damages" so if you can prove that an infringer deprived you of $10,000 in sales, you can ask the court to award you $30,000 in damages, plus court costs and attorney's fees.
Intellectual property attorneys are among the highest priced, as it's one of the most specialized areas of the law.
Now legalese aside, if someone gives you a picture of their grandson or their soccer coach and wants it engraved or sublimated onto an award or gift, technically the copyright would subsist and would be owned by whoever took the picture. This is why a lot of industry people are reluctant to accept photos with a professional photographer's imprint on the photo, as professionals usually expect payment for use of their images.
However the good news is that, generally in this case, if you are doing this job upon the specific request of the customer, and the customer gives you the photo in question, then you are doing "work for hire" and it's unlikely that you would be held responsible for copyright infringement.
However be careful if you are reproducing a photo like that en mass and selling imprinted items to someone other than the original customer.
Although U.S. copyrights do not usually protect foreign works a good rule of thumb is treat it like it is copyrighted. Most major countries are signatories to the "Berne (Switzerland) Convention" which is an international agreement concerning reciprocal copyright protection.
There is one other issue that might be of interest and relevance. Aside from copyright issues, you have to be careful publishing photos of living persons with respect to invasion of privacy issues. Pictures of deceased persons may be copyrighted (e.g. by the photographer) but they are public domain insofar as privacy issues are concerned.
Most living persons can sue you for "invasion of privacy" for publishing their photo without their permission. Exception: high level politicians, movie celebrities, Donald Trump, the Royals, etc. are deemed to be "public figures" and generally cannot stop others from publishing unauthorized photos of them.
Of course be really careful of reproducing images that would tend to embarrass almost anyone, e.g. pictures of them taken in a shower or bathroom, etc.
For further reference, refer to the below link:
www.copyright.gov/circs/circ1.html
If you've read down to here, you've probably read more about copyrights that the average person needs (or wants) to know about copyrights. Anyway enjoy! |