Our Lawyers Help Photographers Understand The Basics About Licensing Rights
Before entering into a licensing agreement, photographers should consult with experienced copyright lawyers. At Sanders Law Group, our lawyers are dedicated to protecting photographers from copyright infringement. We want to make sure that you get paid what you deserve and that your licensing agreements provide you with terms that reflect your wishes. If a business or individual the terms of a licensing agreement, our copyright lawyers have the resources, experience, and determination to seek accountability and compensation.
What Purposes Do Licensing Agreements Serve?
For photographers, licensing is often the best way to earn a living from taking pictures. Capturing a beautiful image of something natural or a celebrity can generate income for someone who took the photo or others who want to use that image. As the photographer of such a picture, YOU hold the rights. You have a copyright on your photo the moment you take it. It is up to the photographer to decide what happens to that picture.
Licensing agreements are the best way to ensure that you control the use of your images. Licensing agreements allow a copyright holder to:
- Permit or prohibit the use of specific images
- Set the scope of the terms of how the images may be used
- Set a time limit on the use of the images
- Protect against unlicensed use of the photographs
Photographers Should Consider Some Issues When Speaking With Lawyers About Licensing Agreements
When consulting copyright lawyers about creating any licensing agreements for your photographs, consider how you want your images to be used.
Ask yourself: What will it mean if someone uses my pictures? How will it affect my reputation as a photographer? How will issuing a license affect the value of my work? How could this licensing agreement affect my compensation now or in the future?
What are Some of The Different Types of Rights You Can Grant in Your Licensing Agreement?
Every licensing agreement can differ depending on the wishes of the photographer and the licensee. Your copyright lawyers can help work out the details, so any contract is a true reflection of what is best for you, the photographer.
There are a few fundamental rights, however, one of which usually exists in some form, in most licensing agreements involving photographs.
Rights That are “Non-Commercial”
Non-Commercial rights are what photographers grant when they don’t want their pictures used as part of income-generating activities. When photographers do not want others to profit or earn income from their work, they can agree to give a license for non-commercial use.
These agreements often allow the licensee to use pictures for things such as school newsletters, blogs, and personal websites.
Rights that are “Commercial”
Photographers confer commercial rights in license agreements when they want to allow the licensee to use pictures for commercial purposes. Usually, commercial rights are associated with advertising materials or the creation of products.
Rights that are “Exclusive”
Photographers can grant exclusive rights. This means that you permit someone to use a specific picture with a promise that you will not allow any other entity to do so. Photographers who agree to give exclusive rights may not resell or license that photo to anyone else at any additional time. Photographers should consider if they want the licensee to have the right to sell those photos to others.
Rights that are “Non-Exclusive”
When photographers grant non-exclusive rights, it means you can sell your images to various people and entities.
“First Rights”
Photographers who sell pictures to magazines, newspapers, and other publications often grant the publishers first rights. First rights mean that the photographer agrees to sell to a particular client before anyone else. Then, photographers are free to sell the image or license it to others.
The right of “One Time Use”
This type of licensing contract is used when a photographer wants to sell the right to use a picture one time, for a single, specific use.
Call Our Copyright Lawyers For Help With Your Photograph Licensing Agreements
Call Sanders Law Group, to find out how we help photographers protect their rights. Whether you think your copyright is being violated, you need help drafting licensing agreements, or someone has violated the terms of an existing contract, call our lawyers today. You can reach our experienced and dedicated copyright infringement lawyers at (800) 979-3707.
