Using my own photos

[pyang 0]

This may be a very silly question, but I'm new to stock photography and I just want to make sure I understand the legal boundaries of what happens once I make a sale. Am I still allowed to use that photo, since I am the original photographer (e.g. uploading to social media, personal blogs, etc)? Or do I lose all rights to access the photo once it's sold?

[Stokie 775]

13 hours ago, pyang said:

This may be a very silly question, but I'm new to stock photography and I just want to make sure I understand the legal boundaries of what happens once I make a sale. Am I still allowed to use that photo, since I am the original photographer (e.g. uploading to social media, personal blogs, etc)? Or do I lose all rights to access the photo once it's sold?

 

Yes, you can still use the photograph as you are the copyright holder.

John.

[MDM 1,807]

You are not selling the photo, you are licensing it. If you license the image as exclusive, then you may not be able to use the image. You would need to check the contract carefully. There was somebody posted something like this a few years ago referring to another agency where he had given exclusive rights and he had been contacted by one of these infringments detectives asking for payment for using the image on his own website. I don't know what the outcome was as I don't think he ever came back to tell us. If you don't license exclusively then there is obviously no problem.

 

Also if you are posting on social media, do read the terms and conditions as you may be signing away a lot of rights to the images.

Edited July 13, 2017 by MDM