Railfan Technology > Copyrights and Photographs Part 2

The thread I started the other day raised many concerns and questions.  I found a interview of a copyright attorney who focuses on photographers' rights which addresses a number of these concerns and questions.  You may find it helpful.

http://blog.kenkaminesky.com/photography-copyright-and-the-law/

Marty Bernard

One point I do not see addressed anywhere is what if the photograph has no commercial or monetary value?  For example, if I take a photo of a passing train while railfanning and I post it on Trainorders (or another railfan site or discussion board).  Since I have no intention of making any money off this photo and it has no commerical value...do copyright laws apply?

RFandPfan

The photo is your intellectual property. Let me make an analogy.  Say you owned a piece of land and you ave no intention of doing anything with it.  If someone plants a garden on it is the land still yours? Do you have the right to kick them off? Does the law still protect your rights? Does the law even apply?

The land is still yours just like the photograph is still yours.  The applicable law still applies.  If you don't care if they plant a garden on your land, you leave then alone. If you don't care if they use your photograph, you leave them alone.

Marty Bernard

Makes sense Marty.  I guess the other piece of this puzzle is the amount of damages one might claim.  If it had no commercial value and no money was made off of it's use, I guess there wouldn't be much of a settlement if a person attempted to sue for copyright violation. 

Those that use an image for financial gain would probably be in a different situation.  Thanks.

See wabash2800's comments on 3/8/15 thread:
http://www.trainorders.com/discussion/read.php?11,3682665,3683849#msg-3683849
ALLEN

Copyrights always apply.  When I find a photo on Train Orders that I particularly like, I always send a private message to the
photography asking for permission to download it, and what my purpose is (ie: putting it on my computer desktop as wallpaper.
 

I dont believe you need permission to download a photo from Trainorders or any other website as long as you use it for your personal pleasure ie. not making money or gain off of it.  There are numerous ways to protect your photos from others use..main one being dont spread it around the internet.
Roger Beckett

Roger, p[ease read the copyright laws.

Marty

Why not watermark the photos you post?
-JH

MartyBernard Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> RFandPfan
>
> The photo is your intellectual property. Let me
> make an analogy.  Say you owned a piece of land
> and you ave no intention of doing anything with
> it.  If someone plants a garden on it is the land
> still yours? Do you have the right to kick them
> off? Does the law still protect your rights? Does
> the law even apply?
>
> The land is still yours just like the photograph
> is still yours.  The applicable law still
> applies.  If you don't care if they plant a
> garden on your land, you leave then alone. If you
> don't care if they use your photograph, you leave
> them alone.
>
> Marty Bernard

Adverse possession.
Bob

MartyBernard Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> The photo is your intellectual property. Let me make an analogy.  Say you owned a piece of land
> and you ave no intention of doing anything with it.  If someone plants a garden on it is the land
> still yours? Do you have the right to kick them off? Does the law still protect your rights? Does
> the law even apply?
>
> The land is still yours just like the photograph is still yours.  The applicable law still
> applies.  If you don't care if they plant a garden on your land, you leave then alone. If you
> don't care if they use your photograph, you leave them alone.

Let someone use your land too long without complaint and you might not be able to kick them off.
But you would still have the pleasure of paying the taxes on the land.

Let people use your photoghrapy without complaint and you can suffer a similar loss of control.
Copyrights mean nothing unless asserted.

Excellent point.