Oh no, another wedding thread!

gman

gman

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Graham
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As previously posted, a colleague at work is getting married and looking for a photographer and there's been a good response from both here and from her own looking.

She kinda raised a point which I thought was interesting and said I'd see what views I get here.

One photographer who has been in touch says they will provide all the images on a CD as part of the package and she reckoned it's a little off that others are asking for in excess of £500 for copyright to their photos.

This got me thinking, if my MD asks me to go out during work hours and photograph a job then as far as I'm aware the copyright belongs to the company I work for as it's been done during my hours of work for it.

So if you commission and pay a photographer to photograph your wedding, then isn't that photographer working for you during that period of time and therefore doesn't the copyright belong to the person doing the hiring?

One thing that springs to mind is that they are actually being subcontracted and it is subcontracting in the true sense as the photographer is providing their own equipment, insurance etc but wondering how this would stand in legal views? :thinking:
 
If it is in the wedding contract that he owns the copyright, then he owns the copyright!

He may well charge more to release the copyright, in order to cover any potential loss of earnings from his lower/none exsistant print sales.

Generally speaking, the photographer will always own the copyright be default, unless it is agreed that copyright will belong to the employer/client.

Thats my understanding on it anyway :)
 
The photographer is the one taking the pictures (using their own equipment) therefore they own the copyright.

If they want to charge £2,000 to release that copyright, then that is their right (excuse the pun).
 
Here's an interesting article with regard to Irish Law so to speak, the last paragraph of the main article: http://www.digitalrights.ie/2006/05/09/photographers-rights and fair enough it's not UK Law but I'm sure similar rules may apply.

It would imply that if you commission someone for a specific photograph(s) then that's all you are entitled to, however, if you are commissioning them as a photographer then all photographs taken during that commission belong to "employer".

Although the second last paragraph does refer to weddings, the wording itself is quite specific in making a difference between commissioning a photograph (being an actual product?) and a photographer (being a service?)

Obviously contracts make things more clear, however, contracts still have to fall within the law and be reasonable so I don't see it as clear cut as simply, "if it's in the contract then that's that" so to speak.

This isn't really of great concern to me as I'm not getting married; been there and :exit: but thought it could be an interesting point as she did seem a little upset at this especially when being quoted such figures for copyright release - perhaps there's a lot of brides out there who feel the same and this could be an area to be looked at? :shrug: :)
 
If you're employed and photography is part of your job description then the employer owns the copyright. The definition of employer/employee is the key issue here.

An employee works under a contract of service whereas a independent contractor works under a contract for services.

An employee is entitled to insurance and welfare benefits, an employer must deduct tax at source. Health and safety for employees is generally higher than for independent contractors. The list goes on...

I think it's pretty obvious that a photographer is self-employed not an employee and how many brides would want to go to all the trouble of setting up PAYE, insurance, supplying the equipment, etc. in order to get the copyright for "free"?

BTW it's not copyright your friend needs, it's usage rights. I sometimes get asked for the images and quote a fairly high price but that's because of the time involved in preparing them all rather than just the ones for printing.
 
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