Copyright and Photographs

Over the years, photographs have enjoyed a variety of forms of protection, but traditionally the protection of photographs has been placed within the law of copyright. While photography as a technique has been around for 150 years, protection issues in photography, as in copyright in general, have been complicated in recent years by the advent of new technology, enabling the digital storage, alteration, and reproduction of images and facilitating their global dissemination via the Internet.

Until now, very little has been written in English about the protection of photographs. This work provides an overview of the law and history of photograph protection in 16 jurisdictions. Each country chapter provides a survey of the major issues of photographic protection, broken down for easy reference into eight sections: definition, originality, authorship and ownership, term of protection, economic rights, moral rights, contracts and the relationship of copyright with privacy and publicity rights.

This book will be of great interest to anyone concerned about the discrepancies within the copyright protection regime in an age of increasing globalisation. In particular, it will be useful for copyright lawyers, collecting societies, photographers, photograph agencies and publishers seeking clear information about the copyright implications of photographs.