COPYRIGHT 101 ON PHOTOS AND VIDEOS
hink you can search for a cool photo and post it on your Twitter or Instagram? Not if you don’t want to risk getting into a lawsuit that could cost you tens of thousands of dollars. Legal terms can be complicated to understand, so we’ll simplify it for you. Especially in the United States where everyone from your social media friends to professional photographers take copyright infringement seriously, you want to make sure you fully understand that using other people’s work can be a crime with serious consequences. That doesn’t mean you should do it if you’re outside the U.S. though. We’ve heard of all sorts of people trying to file claims internationally as well.
Today, we’ll talk only about the copyright on media contents (i.e. photos and videos) because copyright on writing is a separate issue that we’ll save for some other day.
Here we go.
1. Copyright Basics
Let’s get this simple and straightforward to you. If you didn’t take the photo you are about to use, you don’t have its copyright meaning you can’t use it without a written permission from the person who took it. Most of the times, you will have to pay the photographer for such permission. The copyright symbol © written on or associated to a photo is only there as a kind reminder to the viewers that there is a copyright on the photo. The absence of this symbol does not mean that there is not a copyright. Think of it this way. A grocery store may choose to place a sign on its wall saying, “shoplifters will be prosecuted,” but it doesn’t mean that if such sign isn’t present, you are allowed to shoplift.
Assume that any photo or video you find online, including on social media platforms and on Google search, is copyright protected unless otherwise indicated.
2. “So What Happens If I Use Copyrighted Media Without Permission?”
Well, you’re stealing. We should all know what that means. In fact, the consequences you will see could be far worse than the consequences you could get from stealing some candies from the grocery store. According to an article by Digital Trends, a photographer was awarded $1.2 million for a photo that was taken from his Twitter page. The defendants of this case were massive organizations, but can individuals or small businesses be sued for using other people’s photos without permission? We don’t see why not. There was this guy who was sued for $27,000 with an additional $10,000 in legal fees for a total loss of $37,000 for posting an image he retrieved by Google search on his website. That’s what Petapixel reported in its article.
3. “The Image was Royalty Free”
Here’s where some people get confused. A Royalty Free image does not mean that the photo is completely free to use. It means that you don’t need to pay for the photo every time you use it. Stock image sites and apps such as Shutterstock or Adobe Stock mainly run on these royalty free images where a consumer will pay to purchase an image. Then, the consumer can use that photo as many times as they want as long as they don’t claim that it is their photo or redistribute it. In most cases, the copyright will still belong to the original photographer. So, if you are saving sample images from these sites without purchasing them, there will most likely be watermarks on the photos to indicate that you don’t have the right to use them. If you do use them — say post it on Twitter or your blog — you are infringing copyright, and the original photographer has every right to sue you.
4. “What If I Add a Link by the Photo?”
That’s nice that you’re trying to give the photographer or the videographer credit for their work, but you’re doing it the wrong way. It’s not a quote from a book or an article in which you can borrow an excerpt and elaborate on the concept. You may have avoided plagiarism by not making it seem like it’s your own content, but you haven’t avoided copyright infringement. Once you’ve taken an entire photo, you’ve pretty much stolen it entirely. And no, cropping the photo and using a part of it is not considered an excerpt.
Retweet or Comment Retweet functions on Twitter and the Share function on Facebook are your safest options when you want to spread media to the rest of the world.
5. “Can I Take Someone’s Video From YouTube and Add Translations?”
Absolutely not. The courts wouldn’t consider simply adding translations as an “educational purpose,” and hence, it’s not what is known as “fair use.” There are certain conditions when using portions of media contents can fall under fair use, but it’s not the easiest concept to understand when its guidelines don’t draw a firm line between what is and what isn’t fair use.
When someone adds translations to a video, they are taking away the copyright holder’s possibility to sell in a foreign market. The more popular the original video is; the more possible sales you are taking away.
If your sole purpose is truly educational and spreading a content you like, offer the content owner to add translation subtitles to the original video. Then, you can share the link of the video on your platform. If you don’t receive a reply, know that it means “no.”
Honestly, if you are just beginning to understand the concept of copyrights by reading our article here on American Lifestyle, our advice would be to stay away from using fair use if you weren’t granted permission and then trying to justify yourself using the doctrine in court. Instead, come up with original contents and know that you have the complete ownership.
6. “Can I Take a Screenshot From a Restaurant’s Website to Share?”
Maybe. We understand that you might be doing some good for the business by giving them some free advertisement. What you’re taking away though is the compensation the photographer should’ve received for your using the copyrighted image. By legal means though, this may be a case of fair use if you are using that photo for a product review.
As we’ve mentioned earlier, it is probably easier to not worry about fair use at all to begin with if you’re beginning to learn about copyright. It could be just a better idea to take a photo of that burger you absolutely loved at the Hard Rock Cafe.
In this day and age in which our smartphones can take decent pictures, a smartphone should really be all you need to show your audience how awesome your burger was. Take a look at a photo of a burger we took at Shake Shack with our iPhoneX.
What if you really want to post professional photos on your Twitter and Instagram? Then, you need to find yourself a DSLR or a photographer with one who you could hire. For reference, our photos are usually taken on a Canon EOS 5D Mark IV.
7. “But I Used the Photos With Good Intentions”
Here’s a reason that won’t get you very far in your case. You can’t walk into a grocery store, steal a bag of chips, give it to a homeless, and then get away saying that you had good intentions. It’s pretty much the same thing here. You can’t really take something from one to pass onto another.
8. “But Photos and Videos Don’t Have Monetary Values”
Oh, you sure bet they do. Doctors, attorneys, musicians, housekeepers, and all sorts of people charge for their services. Just because you didn’t see the work in process, don’t assume their products magically appeared online. Professional photographers and videographers have spent years to master their capturing and editing skills while you were working on whatever other skills you decided to master for yourself.
As for work you personally deem to have little or no value, know that your rhetoric would go as far as trying to justify yourself saying, “I stole a few candy bars from the convenience store because they taste horrible.” Yes, if you saw no value, we wouldn’t really understand either as to why you would’ve stolen them in the first place.
9. “Does It Matter If I’m Outside the US?”
It does. While there is no such thing as an “international copyright law” that will apply to any country in the world, there are treaties in place such as the Berne Convention that applies in 177 countries. Also, the U.S. courts may decide to apply the American legal system when at least a part of the infringement takes place against a U.S. plaintiff’s work within the United States. As for online media, it could simply mean being visible in the U.S. as described by an article from Intellectual Property Watch.
To Sum It Up
・Know that a copyright automatically applies the moment a photo or a video was taken, and its ownership goes to whoever took such media.
・Medias don’t need to have any attributions to state that it is protected by copyright.
・If you haven’t taken the photo or the video yourself, then you do not own its copyright.
・When intending to use contents that do not belong to you, purchase them legally or ask the copyright holder for permission. If you don’t hear back, assume that it means “no.”
・U.S. copyright law may apply even if you are not physically in the U.S.
・Avoid fair use if you’re not an expert in that field. Your interpretation of the law is not necessarily the court’s, and not knowing the law or your interpreting the law falsely will not serve as legal justifications.
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