Photography

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A place to politely discuss the tools, technique and culture of photography.

This is not a good place to simply share cool photos/videos or promote your own work and projects, but rather a place to discuss photography as an art and post things that would be of interest to other photographers.

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what can i do if a school uses my photos without my permission? (alien.top)

submitted 1 year ago by averageworrywort@alien.top to c/photography@viewfinder.pro

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i'm having issues with my old highschool/the person who is running the yearbook now. they're new at it and have no idea what they're doing yet. we agreed that i would come back this year and take photos of events for the yearbook. i have not missed a single home game this year, and i have taken thousands of pictures. suddenly this person decides they don't want my help and won't be using my pictures in the book. this is very much out of left field for me.

knowing this person, there's a large chance they'll end up using my pictures anyway. are my images protected by copyright in any way? what can i do if my pictures end up being used in the yearbook?

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[–] RedditNomad7@alien.top 1 points 1 year ago

To answer your copyright question, yes, you own the copyright on every picture you take. The only exception is if you’re explicitly doing work for hire and a condition of the contract is transfer of copyright. You are not required to have registered anything with anyone beforehand, though some people will tell you that it must be registered with the copyright office to be valid. (Not true.)

If you don’t want them using your pictures for any reason, I would send them a certified letter plainly stating that they don’t have permission to use your pictures, and if there was any implication or expectation of such that they can consider it withdrawn. Make sure you keep at least two copies of the letter with clear dates. Notarize it if possible. If they do it anyway, you will have an easy case for a lawsuit.