Brock Shinen, Esq wrote:
> Although I have yet to address a case involving a photo booth, my instinct
would be that the photo booth owner owns the copyrights, just as a
photographer would own the copyrights in photos in a studio.
<<< Is ownership of the equipment the determining factor, or will the extent to which each party (the equipment owner and the portrait subject) exercises original authorship in the creation of the work be the prevailing factor in determining copyright ownership in this scenario? In a photobooth portrait, the machine's owner merely purchased the machine, stocked it with supplies and placed it at a designated location, but did not exercise significant original authorship *relative* to the level of authorship exercised by the portrait subject. Composition (body/head placement), expression, wardrobe, props, background choice (white or beige curtain), and the "decisive moment" (fixation is directly triggered by depositing coins) are all controlled by the subject. Though a portrait subject in a typical photographic studio might also take part in determining a pose, wardrobe, background, etc., it is the photographer who exercises ultimate control and fixes the image there. Certainly, a standard, straightforward photobooth portrait would provide only a thin copyright to the subject. But there are many instances of artists using photobooths as creative tools, creating works that would earn full copyright protection.
S_edlik Received on Tue Dec 23 2003 - 02:45:10 GMT
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