Iris Richardson Photography - Your Clients and Licensing Images
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Now the real fun starts. It seems pretty straight forward so far and it has been, but life isn't fair. The next step involves who actually owns your work. A photographer always owns the pictures they create (in the United States) and the copyright stays with the photographer even if the photographer no longer has the film. Photographers license (not sell) photography in two basic ways: by usage or not by usage. When you sell images by usage, you are explaining to the client up front that you retain the copyright and for what purpose they are allowed to use the images. By charging usage, one can maximize the return from a given photo as well as make photography affordable to those who use the image in a small way. If you do not charge by usage, you forgo any future income from that image from that client.
Many companies will ask you for a buyout or worse, a "work for hire". If you choose to give unlimited usage or do "work for hire" (copyright transfer), you give away all future potential income to the photo buyer. Such agreements are fine if you are compensated accordingly. The difficulty is actually getting compensated accordingly within the confines of the budget of the average client. If you give up the rights to your work, a company should provide you all the benefits of a normal employee. "Work for Hire" is used by companies to avoid paying benefits to the photographer that staff photographers in the past received. 99.9% of the time, a "work for hire" contract is bad for your business. Many photographers have found themselves in the position of competing with their own image, owned by someone else, selling it for less. An image you create under "work-for-hire" is an image you no longer have rights to. Thus, one can no longer derive income from that image.
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