Should You Register the Copyright on Your Images?

www.dennismook.com is my website with lots of images.  Check it out!

I'm still out on a short road trip, wandering around with my camera and lens.  I thought this topic may be of interest to you.

Have you ever considered registering your images with the United States Copyright Office?  Do you think you are already protected from unauthorized use or theft of your images?

Disclaimer:  I am not an attorney nor am I giving legal advice.  I am merely relaying information I have learned from my reading and study of U.S. copyright law.  If I have made any errors in this short presentation of information about U.S. copyright law, please leave a comment to correct me.  (I hate it nowadays that one even has to write a disclaimer)

When you push the shutter button, you have created a work and that work is instantly copyrighted and owned by you, the creator, with a couple of exceptions.  In our example, your image is copyrighted by you.  It's your photograph.  You own all rights to it.  If you take photographs for hire, however, you may not own the copyright unless the person or entity who is paying you to take the photographs specifically gives you those rights beforehand in writing.  You might be able to get their word on it, but someone's word doesn't mean much in a lot of cases (especially involving money) these days.

That being said, in our example, you are out on your own taking photographs and you then upload them on the Internet or Facebook or some other venue.  A few months later, you see a company using your photograph for their purposes, could be advertisement or could be to illustrate an article in a magazine.  You are upset, rightly so, since someone decided to use your copyrighted property without your permission. What recourse do you have?

You contact an attorney and you tell the attorney your story and you tell him or her that you want to file a lawsuit to recover damages and punish that company who so wantonly stole you your art work. Then you get the bad news.  Your attorney tells you that unless you have registered your image with the U.S. Copyright Office, you have little recourse except for him or her to send a "take down" letter advising the company that they are using your photograph illegally and to take it down immediately. 

So, even though you own the copyright, it is almost impossible for you to collect damages.  If you would have taken the time to register your image, you most likely could collect damages, sometimes both compensatory and punitive.  If the company had put your image on 3 million soup cans, that could be a whole lotta money, as they say!

Do you now think it is a good idea to register your photographs?  I register all of mine. I bulk register my images about 4 times a year, before I publish any of them.  The U.S. Copyright Office allows you to register your images, as many as you basically want, electronically by filling out their forms on their website, then uploading your images to them.  You will then get a letter in the mail, confirming your registration of your copyright on those images.  If you publish them before registering them, the rules are a bit different.  It costs $35 for each registration, no matter how many images are being bulk registered.  Not much, considering the protection it provides.

Without getting to technical here , I bought and read Photographer's Survival Manual: A Legal Guide for Artists in the Digital Age, by Edward C. Greenberg and Jack Reznicki.  I advise you to pick up a copy as it is an excellent primer on copyright law in the United States, especially for photographers.  Greenberg is an attorney who specializes in copyright law and Reznicki is a highly acclaimed professional photographer who has fought these battles.  The book also takes you step-by-step, page-by-page through the U.S. Copyright Office's website to demonstrate how easy it is to register your work.  I found it very easy to read, understand and it allowed me to start registering my images painlessly.

Do it.  I highly recommend it.  Small cost and potentially a large return or at least protection.

Thanks for looking.

Enjoy!
Dennis Mook