Scanning Photos
Photos, of course, are covered by copyright. If you’ve ever been married, or had professional head shots taken, or you have kids whose after school activity hired a professional photographer to take wonderfully cute pictures of the tykes in their costumes/uniforms, then you know this. You’ve seen the warnings on all the material about what you can and can’t do with the pictures and why you have to go back to the original studio to get more copies even though we all have the machines to make really good copies. (This is very much like the whole music piracy situation, just not as well known or as much talked about.)
But there are times when you actually do own the right to make copies of a photograph. It can. however, be difficult to prove.
Witness the story that came out today about one consumer’s quest to make copies of very old family photographs. She went to WalMart to scan the pictures, and was told by an employee that she couldn’t because “copyright lasts forever.” Aside from that assertion beimg false, it’s still a problem if you have no way to prove you possess the right to make a copy, either because the photo is in the public domain or because you do in fact own either the copyright or an unlimited license. Many copy centers have a policy that they can ask for proof of your right to make copies - so if you’re a very good photographer and you printed you photo in such a way that it looks like a studio shot, you may find yourself being asked for a release or other proof from the “studio” that you have the right to make copies.
The Walmart story is here. And here’s another WalMart photo problem from a couple of years ago.
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