RE: [Leica] Photos on the Web

[Greg Locke <locke@straylight.ca>]

At 08:57 PM 24/03/00 -0500, you wrote:
>I believe in Canada the copyright law has recently been changed such that
>if you hire a photographer to take your photograph, the copyright goes to
>you, not the photographer, unless agreed to differently in writing.
>
>Dan C.

This is "essentially" correct ... but the copyright law also states that 
the creator of the work (and they are referring to artists in general) is 
the "FIRST" owner of the copyright.

A little muddy to be sure.  When the person "commissioning" the work owns 
the copyright USUALLY only applies when the "creator" in employed on staff 
or contract in a "work for hire" agreement.  This IS different then a 
business agreement between to "companies" where the "creator" is an 
independent contractor.

This is why it states in my contracts that the client is paying me a 
"creative fee" for time and for the right to use work produced by me for a 
specified application. In other words... they are NOT BUYING photographs, 
only my professional services and certain rights of reproduction.

For some reason, photographers got lumped with printers and lithographers 
instead of other visual artists in the Canadian copyright law but groups 
such as CAPIC, CAJ and CARFAC are working to get this corrected..... not to 
mention my petitions to the Canadian Intellectual Properties office of 
Industry, Trade and technology .... or whatever the hell they are calling 
it this year.

If you want to learn about ownership of copyright as it pertains to 
professional photography... here is the final 
word.  http://www.editorialphoto.com/



Greg Locke                         St. John's, Newfoundland
locke@straylight.ca              http://www.straylight.ca/locke
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