Photo labs fear the copyright police


Photo labs are refusing to print photos that look "too professional" out of fear of being sued for copyright infringement.


When Morgan's mother and a client recently took CDs with some of his shots to a printing lab, the photo technicians spurned them. They said that since the shots seemed to have been taken by a professional, printing the pictures might be a copyright violation.

The situation is not unusual, and it's getting trickier in our digital age.

Copyright law requires photo labs to be on the lookout for portraits and other professional work that should not be duplicated without a photographer's permission. In the old days, questions about an image's provenance could be settled with a negative. If you had it, you probably had the right to reproduce it.

Now, when images are submitted on CDs or memory cards or over the Web, photofinishers often have to guess whether a picture was truly taken by the customer - or whether it was scanned into a computer or pilfered off the Internet.



Comments (4)      top   link me

Comments

Most places have come up with a form you must sign. It releases them of liability and places responsibility for proof of ownership or right to reproduce images squarely on the shoulders of the customer.

I've had my own work questioned and it's a bitch to get someone to believe you. Persistence pays off.

Posted by: Da Goddess at June 22, 2005 3:45 AM

Your work is too good to me printed here! What a load of BS!

Posted by: RHett at June 22, 2005 2:34 PM

me = be

Posted by: rhett at June 22, 2005 2:34 PM

They didn't even question me when I brought one of my best pictures in to be blown up. I thought it was a good one too.

Posted by: FishOrMan at June 23, 2005 2:31 AM

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