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General Subcontracted Photographers and Copyright Law (in Ireland)

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    Advice needed

    One of my friends was hired by us to take photos of a clients premisses, and some of the photos were really incredible. However, out client now wants to use one of the photos in print, and the hairy issue of copyright has come up. Legally, who owns the photos? Does the photographer? Do we? Does the photographer? Does the client?

    I came across this but its not much help
    http://www.digitalrights.ie/2006/05/09/photographers-rights/

    Was the photographer employed by us or by the client by proxy?

    Now she (the photographer) doesn't want extra money, but she does want credit. Is this acceptable in these circumstances? A little "photo by _________" thing?
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      CommentAuthorDoug S.
    • CommentTimeNov 3rd 2009
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    Was a contract signed?

    If there was and it describes the photographer as employed by either you or your client then whomever 'employs' the photographer has the rights to the images.

    If, however, no claim has been made then it should default back to the photographer.

    Normally, the way things in the creative world work is whomever created it has the rights until they say otherwise. The fact that you're referring to the photographer as 'subcontracted' implies that they freelanced as a photographer for you and thus they still retain full rights.

    That being said, since all the photographer wants is a little credit somewhere on the page that's hardly too much to ask for. I would call that extremely reasonable. If an 8pt line of text is all it'll take to solve this problem I say go for it.
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      CommentAuthorrichquick
    • CommentTimeNov 6th 2009
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    Unless there's a contract which states otherwise, then the photographer has copyright over the photos.

    I don't think a credit is an unreasonable request.
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    Hiya,

    Yeah, copyright retains to the author unless employed under a contract which says otherwise (and even then, sometime, the copyright may still stay with the creator with the client / employer getting a license exclusive or non exclusive).

    I agree with rich and doug, credit her for the picture.

    Cheers,

    Jamie & Lion
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      CommentAuthorDaveH
    • CommentTimeNov 12th 2009
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    This happened to me. Didn't sign a contract and I took the photographs for a website and they wanted them in their brochure. Had already been paid and didn't feel like being a hardass. Sorted it out with copyright in the end.

    Most importantly, I never hand over hi res images as they were exclusively meant for the web. This means they need to come back to me if they want to use them for print.

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