Photographs

Photographs and collections of photographs can be protected by copyright. It is important to keep in mind that ownership of a "copy" of a photograph is distinct from the photograph itself - the intangible intellectual property. The owner of the work (for copyright purposes: the "author") is generally the photographer or, in certain "work for hire" situations, the employer of the photographer.

Even if a person hires a photographer to take pictures of a wedding, for example, the photographer will own the copyright in the photographs unless the copyright in the photographs is transferred, in writing and signed by the copyright owner, to another person.

The subject of the photograph generally has nothing to do with the ownership of the copyright in the photograph (although privacy and publicity rights may protect the interests of the subject of the work). If the photographer is no longer living, the rights in the photograph are determined by the photographer's will or passed as personal property by the applicable laws of intestate succession.

Several photographs may be registered together on a single application. As a deposit, you may send a jpeg or a CD containing the photos, proof sheets, or photocopies of the images. If you use film instead of digital cameras, you can make 35mm slide copies of up to 30 images on a single slide.

A single registration may be made for two or more unpublished photographs as a "collection" on a single application for a single fee if:

• The collection of photographs is given a single title.
• All the photographs are by the same author, or at least one author has contributed copyrightable authorship to each photograph.
• he copyright claimant in all the photographs and in the collection as a whole is the same.
• The collection is assembled and submitted in an orderly manner.

A group of published photographs may be registered on a single application for a single fee if:

• All the photographs are by the same photographer. If an employer for hire is named as author, only one photographer's work may be included.
• All the photographs are published within the same calendar year.
• All the photographs have the same copyright claimant(s).

Works registered as a collection will be recorded in the records of the Copyright Office only under the collective title. Copyright registration of photographs extends only to the copyrightable material deposited at the time of registration. There is no blanket registration that will cover works to be produced in the future.

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