Copyright

Copyright & Images


What is Copyright?
Copyright is the exclusive rights granted to somebody that creates an original piece of work. The work can include dramatic, artistic, musical, literary or other intellectual works. If you do not own the copyrights to a piece of work, the owner can legally stop you from performing their work publically for example a play the person has written or music they have written, displaying their work publically for example their artwork or a production they have created, distributing their work or making derivative versions of their work for example modifying, adapting or making new uses of their work.

How long does copyright last?
When it comes to graphic images the length of copyright is the artist/ photographer’s life plus seventy years. After this period the copyright expires and falls into the public domain, this means that anybody can reproduce or copy their work without breaking the law.


What’s the difference between copyright and a patent?
Copyright is only available for physical items; this is where it differs from a patent, a patent protects the concept, idea or invention itself whereas copyright would protect the written document.
To use a copyrighted image legally, the owner of the image must be contacted for permission to use it. The owner has the right to decline the use of the image(s) for any reason they want, they can also grant the right to use their images according to terms they set. For example an artist can allow their image to be used on a product but may stipulate that if more than 100 items are sold they must receive 10% of sales revenue thereafter.

Copyright Free images
Copyright free images are often referred to as royalty free. Royalty free images are images that can be used by somebody other than its creator without having to pay every time the image is used. Royalty free images often have one of the following licenses attached to them: non-transferable, non-exclusive, perpetual, worldwide, multiple-use sub-license. Each licence has carries certain attributes, these attributes can be found at http://www.stockphotoguides.com/use/royalty-free/what-are-royalty-free-images .
When using images that you didn’t create it is extremely important to seek the proper permissions necessary for the uses you require. Failure to do so could result in a very expensive court case, fines or even being sued a ridiculous amount of money.

Copyright Symbol
This is the copyright symbol; where present it is blindingly obvious that some kind of copyright has been imposed on the image. Before copying or modifying images it is always necessary to ensure the image is loyalty free, what license is hold or to seek permission from its owner first.

 
How to identify ownership of an image?
It can be very difficult to identify the owner of an image because the place that you found the image may not have followed the correct procedures to use the image which can make it very difficult to identify the original owner however contacting the owner of the website could point you in the direction of the image owner. Some image formats have the ability to store some text data; often this data can contain clues that point towards the original owner of the image. If all other methods fail, searching for the image in question with Google could reveal the image at its original source thus hopefully giving a direct link to its owner.

How to gain permission to use an image?
In order to get permission to use an image you must contact the owner of the image and explain what you would like to use the image for. If they agree then you can use it, if not you must find another image. Depending on what the image is to be used for it might be worth drawing up a contract with the owner to ensure there can be no discrepancies about the use of the image(s) .