Photos, Copyright and Education

Anouilh

I have a question that refers to written texts just as much as to photography, but it is one that has puzzled me for years. Once a claim is made that work be made available "for educational purposes" it seems to be linked to a special case scenario in the public mind. This is also the case with charities.

As big business infiltrates the world of charitable organisations and the educational institutions, often to the detriment of creative work, I would be intested to know what other photographers have experienced over time in dealing with this issue.

I have started this thread because I have had a request on on of my blogs that has made me go back to studying copyright further:

http://photographedublin.blogspot.com/2009/09/masqued.html#links

Years ago I worked alongside an educational publisher who had no qualms about publishing photos without giving any regard to the photographers rights and would not like to get involved with that world again.

robertcochran

Anouilh wrote: »

I have a question that refers to written texts just as much as to photography, but it is one that has puzzled me for years. Once a claim is made that work be made available "for educational purposes" it seems to be linked to a special case scenario in the public mind. This is also the case with charities.
...
Years ago I worked alongside an educational publisher who had no qualms about publishing photos without giving any regard to the photographers rights and would not like to get involved with that world again.

I'm not sure if I fully understand your question, but there are some clear legal points:

1. You own full copyright on any image you take (unless done as an employee in the course of your work)

2. No-one has any right to that image unless you grant it to them, with whatever conditions you impose. Doesn't matter if they are charities or for educational use.

3. There are 'fair use' exceptions. Quite how this works with images is a bit unclear (to me at any rate), but in regard to printed material this would allow, for example, a reviewer of a book to quote small samples to demonstrate what the book was about; or a teacher in a classroom to copy small sections of a book as handouts to students. The analogy for images might be someone showing an image to critique it for a photography class.

If I understand correctly what the request to you is for, I don't think it would fall into that fair use category. So you have to decide whether you are prepared to licence the use of your image, and what terms are acceptable to you.

Anouilh

I asked the person to contact me and give more details about how the photo would be used (see comments on the link in the OP).

I learned very quickly to keep my work under the "All Rights Reserved" licence and am aware of the astonishing law suits that run and run because of the different interpretations of "fair use". Miro's family have been engaged in long negotiations to ensure the copyright of his extensive oeuvre as it is reproduced on the internet.