Copyright Questions

[NancyJ]

Hi, I just had a few questions regarding image manipulation and copyright, if you restore or retouch a photograph, who owns the copyright, you or the person who owns the original image?

[Doug Nelson]

Unless legal arrangements have been made, the image originator owns it. Retouching would be classified as a "derivative work". This is the same law that gets recording artists sued when they sample another record for one of their songs.

[Noelf]

Originally Posted by NancyJ

Hi, I just had a few questions regarding image manipulation and copyright, if you restore or retouch a photograph, who owns the copyright, you or the person who owns the original image?

It is actually even more complicated than that.

You said the person who owns the original image, but that person isn't always the copyright owner.

A good example, you go to a photographer and have your picture taken. You have the original picture. However the photographer by default owns the copyright to that picture, not you.

That is what makes this such a fun industry You have to be careful when restoring a picture because the person bringing it to you isn't always the copyright owner (and a lot of times they don't realize it).

- Noel