Copyright law in the United States grants copyright to the creator (photographer, illustrator, writer, artist, etc.) at the moment of creation. Under the Copyright laws intent, full legal protection is also granted at that moment. However, the laws intent and the realities of the legal system leave creators without any real protection unless they take the additional step of registering their work with the United States Copyright Office
Unless a work is registered before a copyright infringement takes place OR within ninety (90) days of first publication, damage awards are limited to actual damages. This is often the fee a creator would have been paid for the work had it been licensed properly.
The problem comes from the fact that copyright
law is a federal law and copyright claims must be prosecuted
in Federal court. This can be very expensive. Just filing the
claim and initial briefs can cost in excess of $10,000! In fact,
a protracted copyright case can cost hundreds of thousands of
dollars in legal and court costs!
If your actual damages are only a few hundred
dollars, say for an infringement of photograph in a quarter
page ad in a local newspaper, you need to be really motivated
or independently wealthy to bring the case to court.
However, if your images are registered, you are eligible
for actual damages as well as up to $200,000 in punitive damages per infringement.
And, the courts may (and frequently do) force the infringer to pay all legal
and court costs. I have found that the fear of the legal bill is often the leverage
that motivates an infringer to settle a claim long before it moves to court.
Registration clearly is the big stick for independent creators.
With this in mind, you would assume that creators would avail
themselves of this protection. Sadly this is not the case. The
Professional Photographers of America recently completed a survey
of professional photographers concerning copyright. What they
found was astonishing. Less than one percent (1%) of professional
photographers register at least half of their work. Worse yet,
ninety-seven percent (97%) of photographers have never registered
any of their work!
The main reason photographers gave for not registering was the time and complexity to prepare the submissions. Navigating copyright regulations can create the impression that the process is difficult when, in reality, it is quite easy and straightforward for most. Recent changes in copyright registration procedures, including bulk registration, have greatly simplified the process.
Bulk registration of photographs allows photographers to
register an almost unlimited number of images at one time using a simple form
(Short Form VA) and for a single registration fee of $30.00. That is the good
news. The bad news is with this simple registration option; the copyright office
only receives about 800 bulk registrations from photographers per year. This
is out of 600,000 to 800,000 total registrations annually. The reason for this
seems simply to be that photographers are not aware of how easy the procedure
to register has become. The procedure is especially easy for photographers who
create their images digitally.
A note on the future of the Copyright Office is important.
The Copyright Office is moving to an all-digital environment over the next two
years. The physical offices will be fully revamped and over 500 employees retrained
in fiscal years 2005 and 2006 to accommodate this change. However, even now,
the preferred method of registration by the copyright office for photography
is j-peg files on CD-ROM.
Here is the simple procedure I use to register all of my
work. Keep in mind that you need to register every two months for full protection.
Images must be registered before an infringement takes place OR within 90 days
of first publication. Registering your current work every two months will keep
you within that legal time frame.
You will bulk register all of your images
as unpublished images using short form VA. Download that form
here:
http://www.copyright.gov/forms/formvas.pdf
- Setup a folder on your desktop and label it Copyright.
- On each assignment you photograph, simply make a low-resolution j-peg copy
of each image and drop it in the file.
- At the end of the second month, write
the folder to CD-ROM
- Fill out Short Form VA completely.
- Write a check to the Register of Copyright for $30.00.
- Send the submission, in a box, to:
Library of Congress, Copyright Office,
101 Independence SE, Washington, DC 20559
Thats all there is to it. Now, lets look a little more
in-depth at a few items.
When you set up your desktop folder, you want to make sure
that you place images in the folder as part of your regular workflow on each
assignment. This makes sure it is done on an ongoing basis. It also prevents
you from having to go back every two months and gather all of the images for
the registration.
The j-pegs only need to be large enough to view on a computer
monitor. I use 5x7 images at 72ppi and use high compression to save space.
All you need on the CD-ROM are the j-peg (or tiff or giff)
files. You no longer need to include software to open the images.
Make sure to fill out Short Form VA completely and make
sure to sign the document. Any blank areas will result in your submission being
returned.
For the title use something like I do: Assignment and
Personal Photographs of James Cavanaugh from 11-1-04 through
12-31-04
Items sent to the copyright office must go through a series
of security checks to protect against possible terrorist threats
like anthrax. This includes irradiating all envelopes with a
very high dose of radiation. This can cause damage to the paperwork
(It burns!) and the CD-ROM (They melt!). Send your submission
in a box. The boxes are hand opened off-site and are scanned
for threats but not irradiated. I use the small FedEx box.
Now, if you do not shoot with digital cameras
there are other deposit forms you can use instead of the CD-ROM.
You can include proof sheets or photocopies of the images. It
is important if the images are in color that the proofs or color
copies be in color. If you use primarily transparency film,
you can make 35mm slide copies of up to 30 images on a single
slide and use that. For more information visit http://www.copyright.gov.
Now this procedure deals with registering new images as
you are creating them. What about images that are older that you want to register?
You can bulk register any old unpublished work on a single
form as outlined above. The images do not have to be from the same calendar year
and you can go back as far as 1989.
For images that have already been published,
you may now also bulk register. However, the images must be
from the same calendar year and you must use the regular (long)
Form VA. In this case, there are specific image deposit requirements
that must be followed. For more information on bulk registering
published work, visit: http://www.copyright.gov/circs/circ40.html#special
and look at the requirements for bulk registration of published
work.
You may also register individual images using form VA and
you must include two copies of the image as published. This is the procedure
you will be required to use in the case of a copyright claim if the image was
not previously registered. You may also use this method for important individual
images that have been published. Keep in mind that the registration fee in these
cases is $30.00 per image!
By registering all of your new work as unpublished every two months, you will fall in the 90-day regulation of first publication and gain the full legal protection of the copyright laws. By registering every two months, your cost will be $180.00 in registration fees each year. This is the best and cheapest insurance you can buy. If you set up your systems so that new work is put in your copyright registration folder as you complete each assignment, copyright registration should take you thirty minutes or less every other month. It is time well spent.
James Cavanaugh graduated
from the New England School of Photography in 1975 and established
his first studio In Buffalo, NY. In 1986, Jim redirected his
business and focused his marketing and creative efforts exclusively
on architectural, interior and aerial photography. Today, he
is recognized as a leading specialist in these areas.
His clients include architects, engineers,
interior designers, contractors, real estate developers, architectural
product manufacturers and government agencies. His Images have
been seen in many national and regional publications.
Jim teaches "Professional Business Practices
in Photography" at Villa Maria College in Buffalo and is
also a frequent guest lecturer at the Rochester Institute of
Technology.
Jim is a member of the American Society of
Media Photographers (ASMP). He is a former National Director
and Vice-President of the association. He is the former Chairman
of the Business Practices Committee of ASMP’s Architectural
Photographers Specialty Group. He is also Past President of
the Western New York Chapter of ASMP. Jim is an Allied member
of the Buffalo/WNY Chapter of the American Institute of Architects.
Jim is well known as a strong advocate of
copyright issues and ethical business practices in photography.
He has lectured nationwide on Copyright, Digital Photography
and Business Practices.
Email: jim@cavphoto.com
Company Profile:
Cavanaugh Photography
Company URL:
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