Business 1 of 2: register your Copyright

I've shied away from talking about the business of photography on this blog. There are plenty of people around the web who talk about the business of photography with more authority than me. But I spent Wednesday  at Kilpatrick Stockton's office in Atlanta. They are one of the Intellectual Property powerhouses in the legal world. 

I was showing them pictures during a partner's lunch, they were giving me advice on protecting my business.  So here is a little free legal advice. 

The single most important thing you can do to protect yourself as a photographer is register your copyright with the US Copyright Office.

Why you might ask? After all copyright law gives the photographer automatic copyright protection. Absolutely true, as a freelance photographer you own the copyright to your photos automatically, but actually registering the pictures with the copyright office gives you additional protection. If you ever have to recover money from someone for an unauthorized use having a registration certificate from the copyright office in hand makes things much easier. 1 you don't have to prove damages, 2 the offender is liable for your attorney's fees. The attorney's fees alone are enough to bring anyone to the bargaining table. The only caveat is that registration must happen before the infringement. 

You can register photographs as a group online for a $35 fee. There is no time limit, though it is best to register images within 5 years of creation.

How do you do it? Go to the Electronic Copyright office (here). You can register online for $35 a group, or with printed forms from that page (printed form registration is $50). 

It is a sad fact that corporations and ad agencies steal photos, but they do (here and here). It happens much more often than you might think. Protect yourself.

Next business post:knowing when to walk away. Bob Krist sure does, you should too.

-Stephen Alvarez

Comments

[Stephen Alvarez]

@ John M
I asked that same question of the IP lawyers. They said it would be best to register them as collections. In my case the UNPUBLISHED pictures would be registered by year.
Now I shot 100,000 images last year. So I would not register all of them, just the ones that 'rise to the surface' the ones that I will convert to TIF format, store in my database, send to my agency...
I believe the published would be registered in the same way. Registration is a bit of work. But if pictures are your lively hood the protection is worth it.
-S

[John M]

"You can register photographs as a group online for a $35 fee"

what is a 'group' ?..........everything I ever shot or will shoot ?

[Elizabeth Adams]

Thanks for the info!

[B]

This post from Greg Ceo also crossed my reader feed recently, about registering photos as a group. Makes a good addendum to your advice:

http://gregceoblog.com/oops-we-may-have-registered-copyright-the-wrong-way