• Choose a category
• All
• Classic-Fiction

By Root 4075 0

less likely to consider a pro-bono assignment or a discounted rate. If the entire organization is made up of volunteers, that might be an indicator to you that a review of your free time may be in order. Often there are events that appear to be so worthy, so pure of heart that they call out for someone to help. When you arrive, though, you find out that the event was able to secure a location at a nice hotel and bring in folks from distant locales because the event, for a debilitating disease or condition, is being underwritten by a pharmaceutical company who has a drug that will cure or lessen the effects of the disease, and if their drug ends up on the list of drugs approved for reimbursement by the state or federal healthcare system, they stand to make millions. It's at this time that you feel taken advantage of. This holds true for ad campaigns as well. In addition, nonprofits don't get discounts on their power and telephone service, nor on printers, copier paper, and such. Don't offer special pricing to a nonprofit unless they are special to you, and you decide that's something you want to do.

Why Work Made for Hire Is Bad for Almost All Non-Employee Photographers

We, as members of this society, have agreed to be governed by the laws of the land. And when the laws of the land, as enacted by Congress and signed into law by the President, become a topic of disagreement, the third check comes into play—the judicial branch. Beginning in small claims or Federal courts in districts across the country and culminating at the Supreme Court, along the way the courts, absent prior case law (and often contrary to past case law), look to the debate and dialogue that took place while the laws were being enacted. This is known as the "intent" of the lawmakers. Courts attempt to understand what dialogue and debate made up the final decision so they can test the case before them with Congress' intent. Save for a very narrow scope of work, work-made-for-hire is absolutely contrary to copyright law—a tenet of the Constitutional framers—as well as Congress' intentions. The framers granted artists a limited monopoly over their work for a limited period of time as an incentive for them to continue to create their works and for inventors to do the same. The framers held the value of copyright so sacred that it was a part of the Constitution. They set forth the value of "useful arts" within the first 1,600 words of a 4,500-word document. They protected "useful arts" and commanded Congress to promote them before they defined the Presidency, outlined issues related to the States, and, obviously, before all the amendments!

If you're going to "sell" your copyright, then it must be with an understanding of just what you're selling. Almost everyone has heard of the garage-sale treasures that were purchased for $20 and ended up being extremely valuable works of art. PBS' Antiques Roadshow has made a multi-year series out of this reality, in which someone doesn't know the value of what he or she is selling. Understanding the maximum potential for revenue over the life of the image—approximately 100 to 150 years when you factor in your life plus the 70 years that your heirs own and control your copyright—will give you an understanding of just what those images could be worth and how you must be appropriately compensated for that loss (or transfer of revenue potential to a third party).

As an employee of a company, your work is vested with your company the moment it's created. Your employer is the author and owner of the work from its inception. Period. If your employer allows you to use the photographs for your portfolio—or anything, for that matter—consider yourself lucky. To be especially careful, get this in writing. I am aware of more than one photographer who, when his employer went looking for reasons to terminate a staff photographer, used the photographer's use of the photographs on his own website as grounds for termination. However, if you own your own photography business, once you create images, you are the author and owner of