Page 42 - Photo Review

TIPS ` OUTPUT

Why copyright matters

and how to make it

work for you

WE EXPLAIN THE IMPORTANCE OF COPYRIGHT AND

HOW TO MANAGE COPYRIGHT FOR YOUR IMAGE FILES.

Margaret Brown

henever you upload a photo to ‘Copyright is To balance the rights of copyright owners
a public website it will become with the needs of the public to have access to
W accessible to other people – even copyright materials, the Copyright Act includes
if your only intention is to share it with friends important certain 'fair dealing' exceptions. These provide
and relatives. In essence, the very act of posting exemptions when works are copied for the
an image online makes it available to be used to anyone following purposes: research or study, criticism
without your consent. Currently the best way to or review, reporting of news, providing legal
guard against unauthorised usage of your photos who creates advice, and parody or satire.
is through copyright protection. :KHUH D FRS\ULJKW RZQHU LGHQWLÀHV D EUHDFK
Copyright is important to anyone who creates the best approach is to seek redress from the
original works; it's a way to let others know the original works’ infringer. If that isn't successful, legal advice
author of the work and how it can be reproduced should be sought. If legal enforcement is
DQG VKDUHG ,QWHUQDWLRQDO ODZV GHÀQH FRS\ULJKW required it is generally done in the court system.
In Australia photographs remain in copyright
as 'a legal right created by the law of a country
for 70 years after the photographer’s death for Why copyright matters
that grants the creator of an original work
exclusive rights for its use and distribution'. photographs taken after 1955. (Copyright has While photographers who shoot for pleasure
This right usually applies for a limited time, expired for those taken before that time.) UDWKHU WKDQ SURÀW PD\ IHHO FRS\ULJKW LV
which depends on where the law is written. Some countries require certain copyright unimportant to them, with the proliferation of
Copyright laws provide creators with certain formalities for establishing copyright, but most social media – particularly sites like Facebook
'moral' rights, which include the right to be recognise copyright in any completed work, and Instagram – image sharing is now
named as author of one's work, the right without formal registration. Effectively this common. Visitors to those sites can ignore
against false attribution of authorship and the means each time you take a photograph it is copyright law and grab an image to use it as
right to object to treatment of one's work that automatically copyrighted. and when they wish – without necessarily
has a detrimental effect on one's reputation. $OWKRXJK WKH ÀUVW RZQHU RI D FRS\ULJKW LV consulting you beforehand.
A range of remedies is available for an usually the person who created the work, Even if you limit the number of people who
infringement of moral rights, including an order if the work was created as part of the author's can view your Facebook or Instagram pages,
for damages, an injunction or a public apology. employment (including as a contractor) the you can't control what those visitors might do
Although many aspects of copyright law copyright may reside with the employer. with the pictures you've posted. Though some
have been standardised through international In addition, where more than one person might ask your permission before sending links
copyright agreements, copyright laws can vary creates the work, then a case of joint to people you don't (or barely) know, others are
by country. Copyright typically expires 50 to authorship requires the authors to share more impulsive and will simply send the links
100 years after the author of the work dies. the copyright in the work. without asking permission.

40 PHOTOREVIEW AUSTRALIA | Issue 75 www.photoreview.com.au