Who owns the copyright to a photographic image?

Under U.S. law, copyright in a photograph is the property of the person who presses the shutter on the camera — not the person who owns the camera, and not even the person in the photo.

Is drawing a photo copyright?

Photographs can be copyrighted. A drawing made from a copyrighted photograph is a derivative work; such a drawing can be published only if the copyright owner of the underlying photograph has given his express consent. The artist of the drawing also has a copyright on all aspects original to his or her drawing.

Do I own my image?

If you’re in the image, nothing changes: the photographer is still creating an original work and thus getting the copyright. It doesn’t matter whether it’s a photo of you or a duck, the photographer owns it. Since the photographer owns the photo, you as the subject don’t have any rights to it.

Are photos public domain?

When a photograph is in the public domain, it means that there is no copyright, and anyone may use, copy or distribute the photo for any purpose. There is nothing about posting photos online that inherently places them in the public domain.

Can photographs of copyrighted works be copyrighted?

Some photographers may wonder whether photographs of copyrighted works can themselves be copyrighted. Architects have their own copyrights in their building drawings, for example. But if you take a photograph of a building, do you have an independent copyright on the photo?

Who owns the copyright in an artwork?

For freelance artists, the copyright remains with the artist. That is unless you sign over the copyright for the artwork to the person or company who commissioned it. This situation will come up more often if you produce original artwork for businesses and corporations and rarely will a private art buyer even think about bringing it up.

Is it copyright infringement to copy a pose from a photo?

It’s complicated, and it depends. It can be copyright infringement to make a drawing based on a photo that copies just the pose. But you could have a good “fair use” defense to a copyright infringement claim if, for example, the drawing is political and not commercial, and has a neutral or positive effect on the original work…

Can a building owner copyright a picture of a building?

Except for buildings that cannot be viewed from a public space, the copyright owner of a post-1990 building (the architect, developer, or building owner) cannot prevent the making, distributing, or public display of pictures, paintings, photographs, or other pictorial representations of the building.