Legal Guide for Photographers

Ever wondered what your rights and obligations as a photographer are? Carolyn Wright, who has written for this site and who maintains the photoattorney.com website, lays out what you need to know plainly and simply. Her book is reasonably brief (who has the time to read a textbook the size of the phone book on this subject?) and avoids an excess of legal jargon.

Whether you're already selling either your work or your services, or are just thinking about it, the Photographer's Legal Guide should answer most or all of your questions.

_______________________

Mike

Featured Comment by Grant Kench: "Note that legal issues are jurisdictionally based. Whilst this publication may well be excellent for the U.S.A., much of it will not apply elsewhere, e.g. where I am in Tasmania."

Featured Comment by Jason: "I own a copy of this and as a photography/ legal resource, it is invaluable. While most people know about Bert Krages' .PDF file explaining photographer's rights, Carolyn's book answers a lot more of the common questions you may be inclined to ask on the business side. She also is a member of Naturescapes.net and an accomplished photographer in her own right. I would recommend this book to anyone interested in selling their work."

Comments

[Jon Leighton]

For those of us in the UK, this is pretty useful: http://www.sirimo.co.uk/ukpr.php

I'm not sure if any of the advice is out of date though...

[Peter Parsons]

Canadian photographers may want to try this site:
http://ambientlight.ca/laws.shtml

[Greg Christie]

And continuing the theme for NSW photographers

http://4020.net/words/photorights.php

[David Bennett]

For England and Wales:

http://www.sirimo.co.uk/media/UKPhotographersRights.pdf

[Andrew Sowerby]

The jurisdictional issue is a very real one, not only between countries, but even between states or provinces. The Quebec Charter of Rights and Freedoms contains a right to privacy. This right was held by the Supreme Court of Canada to require photographers to get the permission of their subjects before publishing the photo. As a result, the law around use of photographs of individual is much different in that province than in the rest of Canada.

[Roland]

If anyone knows of a similar publication for the Republic of Ireland I would be very interested to know about it...

[Marcus Thompson]

Roland,

The only reasonably accurate description of Irish Phototgraphers rights is on the link below -
http://www.digitalrights.ie/2006/05/09/photographers-rights/

If this isn't enough try the APUG forum, they have a very active Irish section with some very well informed members

Best of Luck

Marcus

[Jordan Styll]

I'm definitely going to look into this book. Hopefully it doesn't just cover professional photographers, but also just you're on a mountain and get the most scenic photo ever and want to publish it. Thanks for the post.