Her photographs are seen frequently in Vogue and Vanity Fair and throughout the public space.  In this digital age it would be easy to find a copy of one her pictures and put it up on a website. Some would see it as petty theft, but the copyright and ownership of those images are worth a great deal and are not for the taking. This event illustrates unequivocally the value of copyright, without the need of legal jargon.

What are these rights? They may vary from country to country but, basically, they deal with the right for acknowledgment, compensation and restriction on usage. If you appropriate something that is not of your making (creation) and use it without permission, you are basically profiting from someone else’s property without their knowing. This is a NO-NO. Similarly, if you grab a graphic or a photo on the Internet and modify it a little (or a lot) to become your own, it is simply not OK either. You see, it is like fair play, a huge ethic dimension is involved in copyright.

This is all too heavy, let’s get practical: I bought these photos from a professional photographer they should be mine… should they not?  Yes, you bought the photos but not the right to use them. That is impossible! Then what is the use of these pictures, if I can’t use them? That is exactly the point, you cannot use them, unless you clear up the usage restriction with the photographer and this is what you have to do to make it OK with the copyright of the creator. One basic thing to keep in mind is that a good photographer can only survive if paid, and that is the very reason you can hire this photographer in the first place.

Topics ahead:

• Here is what you can do, if you commission a photo shoot
• The photo credit
• Your copyright rights
• Counterproductive copyright jargon
• A change of attitute toward copyright – avoiding the fiasco of the music industry
• Does Facebook own you?

Here is what you can do, if you commission a photo shoot:

To illustrate, let’s assume you are in the tourism industry and you have a destination to promote and need new photos and would like to commission a photographer outside of your staff. (Note: I make this “outsourcing” distinction here, because if the photographer is member of your staff, it is commonly accepted that you, the company, own the rights to the photographic work, so long as the work is closely supervised and conceptualized within the company. My legal adviser was pointing out to me that the laws governing ownership are very different in USA versus Canada. In the US if you commission the photos, you own the rights. Checking with your legal adviser is always advisable! )

This brings us to another important point: this article is about commissioned pictures for the purpose of promotion of a company. They are intended as graphic communication material as opposed to belong to the arena of ART or art objects (ART: Meaning art as self-expression, the type we find in galleries). The intent is clear, the pictures we are talking about here are material commissioned for the purpose of marketing the company, in the same manner as an advertisement page would be. (I would like to point out the model of copyright restrictions on advertising graphics are in every way similar to the type we discuss here for commercial photography.) Nevertheless, it is the job of the photographer to be creative, and that is what you pay for.
Here is what to do:
- Clear up (with the photographer) your usage rights for these new photos from the start. If you intend these pictures to be used for a season only, say so. If they are to become like “signature shots” of your venues, say so and get the rights release in writing. The business of counting every single time a photo is used and paying compensation is in my opinion ludicrous, and with the Internet it becomes close to impossible to track. It may just prevent you from using the shot when you need it most for a media promotion. I propose that you clear-up  the rights of usage outright and avoid professionals who create too many obstacles from the get go. After all, you want these shots to promote your destination in any way you see fit and that is the point of commissioning them in the first place.

- Be clear about the usage context. How to voice this: “I am commissioning these photos to be used to promote the destination. The photos may appear in various media outlets.” (You can often purchase the right for a limited time, if that works for you.)

- If you commission a custom photo shoot, make sure that the collection is sold to you exclusively, if that is your intent. If that collection, commissioned by you, becomes available on a commercial stock photography site, for anyone to buy, is that OK with you or should it remain unique? If you have franchisees within your organization who may need these pictures, make sure that is known in your agreement with the author.

- If there are people in the shots, make sure you get (in writing) a “model release form” for each individual, and particularly so, if there are children involved in the shot, where you need parental consent. Example of a model release form:
(http://www.asmp.org/commerce/legal/releases/custom_forms/customize.php?fname=SimpleModelRel)

The photo credit

- Photo credit is not the copyright. The copyright is about ownership and restrictions on usage. The photo credit is about acknowledging the author of the work. It is customary to write the credit of the author (photographer’s name) in the metatags of the photo or add it to the caption. Metatags on a true asset management system will be carried through with the download, embedded in the file IPTC tag. This tag source is used by serious journalists as a key reference for the identification of press material. That said, you cannot force the Media to use a photo caption nor a photo credit, so be sure to let your photographer know from the outset that that might be the case, and that it is outside your control. Some media outlets oblige you to have the photo credit, while others will not use the image, if you force them to use the credit.

Your copyright rights

By properly tagging all your material, photo, logo, and other assets, you define the restrictions and the context and intended use of your promotional material. This serves as a warning to unscrupulous users, but most importantly, puts the media at ease that they have the permission to let them use the stuff. This way it is clear that your photo collection is to be used to promote your venue and not arbitrarily used for another purpose. As I also mentioned in an earlier article, a good caption is not a copyright, but goes a long way to assist users in protecting your ownership rights, as it also acts as an identifier. On your copyright do provide contact information.

Here is a what a typical, concise and practical copyright statement can include:
- The owner of the copyright and date.
- Definition of the the material (e.g. photo).
- Specified restrictions and intended use.
- The contact info for the user.
It looks like this:
Copyright © (the company name), Feb 2009.
This photo is for use by the media, press or web professionals, for the purpose of editorial and documentation materials restricted to (the company name) promotion. This photo may not be sold and may not be used on materials for sale, without the express written permission of (the company name). Contact: (The company name) and address.

Counterproductive copyright jargon

Of course one can have the legal department make a very comprehensive copyright multi-page long document, enunciating every aspect and restriction before accepting the release of promotional photographs or graphics. But keep in mind that the MEDIA is not about to jump though hoops to give you free coverage. This would negate all your marketing effort. Remember, these photos are better out there promoting your company that sitting on a server. Our solution is to keep copyright short, clear and simple. Pay your legal department to come up with a clear statement of your rights that is contained within one to two “twitter”-length, 140-280 character sentence. I should make this a contest! Seriously, the skill to use short and simple words to pin an idea down is what is needed.

A change of attitude toward copyright –
avoiding the fiasco of the music industry

Remember when it is out there, there is in fact very little you can do about preventing unscrupulous users form misappropriating your lovely graphics or photographs. The better your photos are the more you will attract pirates, particularly so on the Internet. The catastrophe of the music industry attempting with a barrage of legal procedures to enforce copyrights is a demonstration of this futility. The models of legal restrictions, backfire and simply encourage more pirating. In turn the music industry found more profitable to release the works a in small bits and for small cost = make it easy to pay and educate your users.  Perhaps that is all a question of morality and morality has not evolve in tandem with technology. My partner, Inese Birstins, a former teacher (in various countries in the world), what pointing out that from the earliest of age, children in all societies and for the longest time, she can remember, are/were encourage to cut-up magazines, appropriate internet content to in use for their essay that is most of the time presented publicly to their pears. So from day one we encougae our savant kids to do away with copyrights, and they certainly seams to have learn that lesson how too well.

Does Facebook own you?
Notes on Coypright and content ownership in Social Media.

Nathanael Ritz from our head office and also a member of the generatation “Y”, made me current with the recent appropriation policies on Facebook. ( http://www.facebook.com/terms.php Section: “Licenses”). As I understand, you agree to give Facebook a complete license to do anything they want with the content you upload to their servers and they can exercise their rights to commercialize it. Knowing this, if you post a photograph on Facebook that you have acquired for your promotion and did not clear the model rights (or other rights) you may be rendered liable “big time”. In addition, that story picture posted on Facebook that you thought was solely yours, may be inadvertently also licensed to them (Yep! that includes your logo!).  Are you going to stop using Facebook altogether? You will probably choose to continue using Facebook to some extent, regardless. And in fact, if you own the content and remain unconcerned about giving Facebook (and other similar services) a complete license to your content, you should continue to use it. It is also imperative to check the terms of use, as from time to time they change.

Any way you slice it, your actions on the internet is a direct representation of your brand. Turning a foe into a fan is by far the best choice. We know this because we deal precisely with these matters or usage rights constantly. Having a copyright policy that encourages proper use versus attempting a barrage of  restrictions is perhaps your best stategy.

What makes a caption:

- One sentence: (25-50 words)
- 4 words : Location, Object (or person), Date taken, Picture provider
- Optional: Instruction on copyright. (ie. if you want it to appear with publication)

What makes a GREAT caption?

- Adding some zest and pizzaz to your caption (20-40 words).

Here is an example on adding “LIFE” to a caption.

The ordinary caption:
“Hockey goal and skating ring on Lake-Louise, winter scene.”

The Zesty caption:
“Located in the winter wonderland of Lake Louise in the Rockies, despite its frosty appearance, it has become the hottest site in town as staff and clients from surrounding hotels join for a casual evening of hockey. By far, the best evening fun in town.”
(Lake-Louise, Canadian Rockies. Hockey ring. Photo: N.Vigneault)

If you have a better idea for a zesty comment, let us know!

The point to remember is that if you have a great shot with no caption, journalists likely will not use it. If the picture is THAT awesome, someone may use it but without the proper information (linked to you) and this will simply negate your promotional effort. If your picture has no caption, the smart thing right now is to make one and then polish it later when you feel creative.

Embedded Metadata

While this is technical in nature, it is good to be aware that modern systems and applications are able to read a myriad of information (text) that gets embedded into many different kinds of files.

When a photo is downloaded from a proper digital asset management system like the CleanPix service all of the metadata you entered in for that image will be embedded straight into the file. This includes caption and copyright. This same information is viewable from the “View Caption” button on our website. Top media outlets such as L.A. Times, Condé Nast Publications, Stern Germany, Paris Match (to name a few) source this embedded metadata regularly. Editors and journalists have contacted us to verify information if it is missing. With the proper metadata included with your photo, it can be sent all over the world and journalists will not hesitate to use your photos with their stories and link them to you.