Hi all, for all of you that missed our online Q&A webinar with X-Rite, we have the full hour to listen to here. It’s split into 2 parts since we had way too much info to keep it all in one segment (that and the fact that our blog had a size limit to upload).
Part 1
Part 2
We had good questions and questionable answers, but we think you’ll still get a lot of great info when you listen.
Feel free to ask any questions you have here in comments.
#1 by Paul on October 18, 2016 - 11:31 am
Thanks for another great seminar on copyright and model releases. I understand your insistence on photographers registering their work. And the online process with the Copyright office is easy to do. My “problem” is that I’m shooting pretty much every week, photographing aspiring models and actors for on trade, mostly to improve my photography and lighting skills. I give the photos to my subjects a few days after each shoot and they will often post a few of those to Instagram, Facebook, their personal website, and once in a blue moon their agency will post an image to the agency’s website. What I get out of the deal is a signed model release and an opportunity to improve my skills. I used to register images quarterly, as that was affordable, but then realized that some of the images that I registered as an unpublished collection were likely published due to the Instagram/Facebook postings, and I often didn’t know which images had been published, since I wasn’t doing the publishing. I can’t afford to register weekly, so I’m not sure what to do about registering. As I read the Fact Sheet FL-107 from the copyright office only collections of unpublished images can be registered as a group with one fee, while published images must be registered individually with a separate fee for each image. Is that correct?
So how much of a problem am I creating if I’m registering a collection of images as unpublished when some of the images may have actually been “published” before the effective date of registration? Does that make my registration of all images in the collection completely defective? How do I work around this problem? Thank you!
#2 by Jack and Ed on October 22, 2016 - 10:44 pm
Hi Paul, Posting to Instagram and Facebook in a non-commercial usage is a grey area. Call the Copyright Office and they will likely throw it back to you to determine if it’s considered publish yourself. We’re going to advise the same as Ed and I disagree on this. Ed says assume it’s published, I say unpublished. I’d continue to register everything, unless you know it was used beyond social media or in a more commercial usage. This is not legal advise, but my opinion.
Jack
#3 by Ed Greenberg on October 29, 2016 - 3:57 pm
Dear Paul:
Based solely on the wording of your question, any mixing of published and unpublished works can render the registration insufficient. We state this in our book and every chance we get. Don’t mix published with unpublished. Don’t mix photos with differing years of creation in the same registration.
#4 by Linda Gregory on November 1, 2016 - 9:28 am
I have an image I registered as published four years ago of a political candidate. The opposition used it then and because I had not registered it in a timely fashion and did not have the completed form from the US copyright office, it was not financially appropriate to sue although I did contact them and their publicity company did respond negatively.
This year, they’ve used the same image. Will it be financially worth an attorney taking this on now or because it’s registered as published, it will always be worth less?
#5 by Jack and Ed on November 1, 2016 - 12:19 pm
You should see a local attorney experienced in intellectual property immediately. If the candidate is standing for election next week, making a claim now may give you additional leverage. Bring your registration, all correspondence, e mails, copies of usage etc. with you when you see an attorney. If use was made (again) without first obtaining a license AND, after you gave notice your matter should be brought to any attorney ASAP to see if it is worth pursuing. It sounds promising.
And why do you think there is less value being registered as published? There is no effect if registered as published or unpublished, the issue is simply is it registered.
#6 by Paul on November 1, 2016 - 3:50 pm
Thank you Jack and Ed. I appreciate your advice and will my best to comply. Paul
#7 by Perse on February 27, 2017 - 7:17 am
Hi there, I’ve purchased a copy of your book, “The Copyright Zone” and have found it an invaluable resource, however I have a question not addressed directly in your book (specifically p. 57, Definition of “Published”). I’m a UK-based photographer and a member of my local camera club. I have an extensive collection of images that I’d like to register with the US Copyright Office, however some of these images have been submitted to club competitions via digital upload on a private area of the club website. These are shown to club members on a projector at scheduled meetings and afterwards are customarily posted on the club website in an area of the website visible to the general public, though in my case I opted out of having my images posted online. My question is: do these images count as having been published? My intention was to show them to club members, not to the general public. Also, our club organises an annual print exhibition at a local gallery which showcases members’ work and, as such, is of course open to the general public. Does taking part in the exhibition constitute publication even if no attempt is made to license the image? Many thanks for any clarification.
#8 by Jack and Ed on February 28, 2017 - 11:12 am
Hi, It’s hard to really answer without more detail, but here goes. This is my opinion (Jack) and not to be considered legal advice. The question of “published” is a grey area in that even the Copyright Office is not clear in some cases. They will advise that you have to make that determination in some cases, especially online questions. But you state that your work is not shown online. I would also venture that a gallery show of work is not publication. That is my opinion. Now if this is a show in the Piccadilly Underground station with thousands of people wandering through, it might be a different answer than having the show in a local gallery in a regular neighborhood. That’s why details matter.
In short, my non-legal opinion in what you described, is that if I was you, I would register all as unpublished.
Jack
#9 by Perse on March 1, 2017 - 7:35 am
Thanks very much for your reply, Jack, that’s helpful to hear.