Who should have copyrights to a photo?

[dcmdale]

I do not know about US. laws covering contracts, but in the Swedish legal system several laws are written so that the described rights and obligations are unwaivable. Philistine, fill me in - does go for US. laws also?

Within U.S. law, there are indeed unwaivable rights, but generally that status comes where the rights are more fundamental than in things like the ownership of pictures.

[keropie]

Realize, of course, that policy decisions are not made on the basis of your case, but on the basis of what good policy is. I have no doubts that in your particular case, it would have been fine for the paper to email you the pictures, and that nothing bad would have happened. However, in many other cases, this sort of policy could be (and likely would be) abused. So the paper has to decide if they:

a) have someone in a position who can decide such things make the decisions, which, once started, leads to them needing to make more such decisions, and could conceivably lead to a department existing for the sole purpose of making such decisions, or

b) make all decisions a no (or yes, but I can't see that happening).

They went with b.

[lindajdunn]

Hi!




Actually, no. The gasoline was payed for by me, I turned up to the newspaper main office without any involvement by the newspaper. The journalist and the photographer only had to walk downstairs to meet me and the boys in the lobby. On the contrary, I think that one could argue that my son and I plunked a story right in the lap of the journalist, and made it easier and cheaper for her to fill her page than if she would have had to search for news on her own.


Have a nice time!

Peter Gustafsson

Oops. Sorry. But there is still the issue of it being the newspaper's camera and photographer and when you "own" that, you "own" whatever they produce during the time that you "own" them. This is why many disputes arose over who owned the code when a programmer developed code in his off-hours that worked effectively with his employer's product. In those cases, the employe incurred no expenses beyond the employee's salary but claimed to own anything the employee developed during the time of employment.

[PeterGustafsson]

Hi!

Within U.S. law, there are indeed unwaivable rights, but generally that status comes where the rights are more fundamental than in things like the ownership of pictures.

Note: I am not a legal specialist, so take this with the appropriate amount of salt. That said, from the basic law course that I studied during undergraduate engineering studies, it appears that the Swedish legal system "unwaivable" is the norm, and "waivable" is the exception only used in quite special cases. If this ever were to become Swedish law, I can not see this thing becoming a "waivable" item - my gut feeling.


Have a nice time!

Peter Gustafsson

[PeterGustafsson]

Hi!

Realize, of course, that policy decisions are not made on the basis of your case, but on the basis of what good policy is.

Hah!

We all know that policy is not decided on what good policy is, but on whatever suits those who are closest to power! Only in the case where there are more than one powerful interested parties who interests collide, can inherent goodness come into play!


Have a nice time!

Peter Gustafsson