--- Angi Turnpaugh <shutterbug123@hotmail.com> wrote:
>
> Hello everyone!
>
> I just spent the weekend shooting a local horse
> show..great fun!....
I've encountered this with my portrait clients in recent years.
My approach with them now is simple. I give them the proofs and
the negatives (priced accordingly). I get all my money up-front
and they can print, scan, copy to their heart's content. They
have ownership of the images and can do what they want. In
short, I am selling them all rights. I may be giving up some
income in doing that but I don't care. I am relieved of the task
of providing reprints/enlargements, images I personally have no
use for, and I am also relieving myself of anguish and
aggravation. And I use the fact that I am giving (selling) them
the negs as a selling tool.
This probably isn't practical in your situation. But I learned
quite some time ago that copying and scanning are facts of life,
as another poster to this thread mentioned. And it's only going
to increase as time goes on. Maybe someone will come up with a
print that can't be scanned or copied but if they do you can be
sure the technology to defeat that will also be developed.
Certainly if you register your photos with the Copyright Office
you have a solid basis under which to sue for copyright
infringement. But even if you get a judgement and monetary award
in court the lawyer fees will probably eat that up and more. Not
to mention the time you spend dealing with this. Personally, I'd
rather use my time in other ways.
I'm not saying that copyright registration and legal recourse
are never worth pursuing. For commercially valuable photos they
are. But you are the only one who can decide this.
Richard
=====
Richard Martin specializes in Cityscape and Waterscape stock photography as well as Children's Portraiture. E-mail: marphoto@yahoo.com
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