[thelist] photo copyrights

[Laurel S. Nevans]

I am a part time craft-artist, and as such, had my picture appear 
on the front of the local paper.  My sister is a former Newspaper 
Reporter.  I asked her about reprinting my cover on my website, 
in marketing materials, etc.  She told me that I had a certain 
right to "fair use" of my image in marketing materials.  However, 
she said that I should include the WHOLE fromt page in any scan, 
and be sure to include the newspaper's masthead and any photo 
credit/caption in the scan.  In terms of advising me on web 
design customers, who don't seem to understand that they just 
cant "save as" that picture of them on that website and use it on 
their own, she advised me that I needed to get permission from 
the newspaper to reprint any copy, and permission from both the 
publisher and the photographer to reproduce any photo.  Depending 
on the photographer's contract with the paper, either the 
photographer or the publication may own the photo copyright. 
(Did they employ the photographer, as in he was on staff, on 
which case the paper generally owns the photo.  Or did they buy 
single photos from a freelancer, in which case it's doubtful the 
paper owns the copyright.)

I'm sure most advertisers fair use policies run along the lines 
of the newspapers: you must reproduce the ad in its entirety, 
rather than just clip the image.  I'd probably send a screen shot 
of the ad's intended use with a cover letter to their corporate 
offices, just for the CYA factor.  If I was handling a client of 
any "note", I'd probably also see what someplace like Getty 
Images has and what they'd charge for use.  The advantage to 
purchaseing images from places like that is that they handle all 
of that legal use stuff for you.

Usual disclosures.  IANAL.  YMMV.

Laurel Nevans
Independent Computer Guru
Sunny FL, USA