Please note the copyright laws requiring the retention of our studio logo on any images that may be reproduced or shared. To the extent you share the images with your friends and family, you are obligated to share this information with them as well. We trust our customers abide by these principles and understand our right to protect our business work product.
A copyright is a legal device that gives the creator of a literary, artistic, musical, or other creative work the sole right to publish and sell that work. Copyright owners have the right to control the reproduction of their work, including the right to receive payment for that reproduction. An author may grant or sell those rights to others, including publishers or recording companies. Violation of a copyright is called infringement.
Copyright is a property right. Under the Federal Copyright Act of 1976, photographs are protected by copyright from the moment of creation.
According to the U.S. Copyright Office, the owner of the “work” is generally the photographer or, in certain situations, the employer of the photographer. Even if a person hires a photographer to take pictures of a wedding, for example, the photographer will own the copyright in the photographs unless the copyright in the photographs is transferred, in writing and signed by the copyright owner, to another person. The subject of the photograph generally has nothing to do with the ownership of the copyright in the photograph. If the photographer is no longer living, the rights in the photograph are determined by the photographer’s will or passed as personal property by the applicable laws of intestate succession.
Examples of Copyright Infringement
– Claiming another’s work as your own
– Any manipulation (including editing) that is not done by permission
– Scanning a digital picture
– Downloading sneak peeks from the web