| Joined: | Mon Apr 2nd, 2012 |
| Location: | Carthew, Cornwall, United Kingdom |
| Posts: | 6874 |
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Certainly tell your brother, and have the evidence that the images are yours available. Also confront the "Pro" with the evidence and see how He/She reacts. However, if you never registered your copyright with the U.S. Copyright Office (http://www.copyright.gov), a reputable attorney will probably be reluctant to pursue any legal action for you unless you insist, and even then they will warn you that without a copyright registration number, your claims will probably be rejected by a court. - EdM.
This shows how unhelpful the law is in these cases.
I believe in UK the breach of copyright is the use of materials for which you have not paid or have rights to use. It is more akin to theft rather than any formal registration of ownership. Proof of ownership is pretty easy with film but less easy (but still relatively easy)with digital.
The difficulty come when you have commissioned work like in Eric's case as copyright is usually transferred when payment is made by the customer, unless the customer has agreed differently.
Wedding and portrait/studio photography is a different game again which is why it is recommended that you have a contract for each customer. Otherwise you only get payment for taking the pictures not the subsequent prints as the images are deemed to be commissioned.
Sometimes it pays to be careful!
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Still learning after all these years!
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