Re: senior pics

Sandy Schaefer <schaefer[_at_]vaxa.cis.uwosh.edu> wrote:
>
> It seems to me (non-lawyer musician) that senior pictures would be a
> "work made for hire" with the copyright belonging to the student who
> pays for the pictures or at least the school who hired the photographer.

.... and Emil Pellicer asked:
>
> Why wouldn't grad pictures (or any other kind of school pictures) be
> considered works for hire in the US?

The answer to both questions is that the US Copyright statute defines "work made for hire" very narrowly. It is either (1) "a work prepared by an employee within the scope of his or her employment" (and a contract photographer hired by the school to take class pictures is emphatically not an "employee"); or (2) a specially ordered or commissioned work that fits one of several narrow descriptions (school photographs not being among them), whose author has expressly agreed in writing that the work will be "made for hire."

Of course, anyone who hires a photographer can ask for an express assignment of the copyright in the photographs, and the photographer, depending on the circumstances, may be more than happy to do so--but it has to be in writing. Without such an assignment, however, the photographer remains the copyright owner.

Bob Cumbow
<cumbr[_at_]perkinscoie.com> Received on Tue Apr 15 1997 - 02:15:04 GMT