The concepts of copyright law and a photographer licensing his/her work is probably one of the easiest places for the buyer and creator to have a misunderstanding. Particularly, for a new buyer and/or photographer.

Copyright law was passed in its current form to encourage and promote the creation of new works and intellectual property. It also enables two ways of doing business. The photographer can be a producer of a manufactured product or he/she can operate as a service and lease his/her creations.

Licensing (leasing) makes good business sense for the photographer and saves money for the buyer. A photograph can easily have hundreds of different uses other than the one it was originally created for. Essentially an image could produce income for the duration of its life. If a photographer assigns all rights to the client, he/she is also transferring potential earning power from that work to the client.

Let's say you purchase a CD, book, video tape, or software. The price may be anywhere from $10 to $100. Now, what are you actually paying for? You are paying a portion of the cost to produce the product and a portion of the profit the company must make to stay in business. How much do you think the product would cost if you bought the only original, and the manufacturer could not recoup this expenses from additional sales? $10,000, $100,000 or even a million dollars might be more in line. You can view it, listen to it, read it, or use it on your computer the rest of your life. Essentially you have purchased unlimited personal usage for a very fair price. You have not purchased the right to duplicate it and resell the product.

Purchasing usage of images is the same basic concept. Purchasing usage allows the creator to recover costs and profit from additional sales, thus keeping the price lower to the client. If the client purchases, and it's possible to do so, the copyright to an image, the client should be prepared to pay a premium price.

Selling usage allows the client to purchase just what they need. If at a later date, the client decides that the image worked well, they can always purchase additional usage at that time.

Study Chapters 5, 6 and 11 in Section 2: "Copyright - Protecting Your Assets", ASMP Professional Business Practices...,

Go to and bookmark the United States Copyright Office.

1. Print out the Copyright Office Home Page.
2. Locate and print out Form CO and instructions.
3. Print and review Circular 40A
4. Print and review Circular 9

Download and study the following web sites:

• ASMP Copyright Tutorial

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