View Print Friendly Version
Lesson from Corbis Copyright Registration Procedure: Your photographs may not be protected unless you register your own copyrights
© Cheryl Hodgson 2010 | Posted on May 11, 2010
Photographers who have utilized Corbis’s copyright registration program since the mid-90s may have less copyright protection than they think. A valid copyright registration is required in order bring a legal action for infringement, and a registration prior to infringement is vital for purposes of obtaining statutory damages and attorneys fees. Without registration, the copyright owner is left to pay his or her own legal fees and can only recover actual damages, often measured by the profits made by the infringer. In the case of a photograph, this is an all but impossible burden, and the cost of litigation even a greater hurdle.
In a recent federal court decision out of New York, photographers Marc and David Muench brought a copyright infringement suit for a textbook publisher’s use of their images beyond the scope of the license. The court ruled against the Muenches, saying they didn’t have ground to sue because the images were not properly registered through Corbis’ bulk copyright registration program.
The Muenches, like many other photographers, had an agreement with Corbis granting legal title in selected images “solely for the purpose of copyright registration.” After Corbis registered the images as a compilation in its own name, it would reassign legal title in the individual images to the photographers.
This program, used by hundreds, was thought to be a benefit for photographers because it took care of the copyright registration process for artists and allowed Corbis the right to pursue infringers. The result, however, is that the Corbis collection of photographs are now only valid as a compilation. The problem was that the individual authors of each photograph were not identified as authors in the registration.
This means that the individual photographers whose names were left off when the compilation was registered, do not have valid registration for their individual images in the collection. The result is vulnerability for the hundreds of photographers who have used the registration system through Corbis.
This case emphasizes an important lesson for all photographers and creators: you should register your own images in order to preserve important remedies in the event of infringement! If you have images with Corbis and signed a Corbis Copyright Assignment Affirmation Declaration, or have other photos being licensed through any other site, or on your own, you should immediately start the process of registering the images by contacting the today. Get the ball rolling, because without registration, you will face the same situation as the Muenches, with no ground to sue for infringement.
1 Comment »
May 18th, 2010 at 7:53 am
[...] Photography, Trends in Photography, business of art, copyrighting your work | Leave a Comment Lesson from Corbis Copyright Registration Procedure: Your photographs may not be protected unless yo…. [...]