Unlock the Power of Online Signature Legality for Photo Licensing Agreements

How to eSign a document: online signature legality for Photo Licensing Agreement

so what is licensing a photograph may be your photographer wondering why other photographers license their photographs or maybe you've hired a photographer are wondering what is this licensing thing all about the fact is when a photographer clicks the shutter button on their camera they're instantly the proud owner of a copyrighted image and that goes for you too whether using your phone a point-and-shoot or a professional DSLR this isn't something that photographers just made up it's actually the law of the land it's actually a concept found in the Constitution of the United States just like the concept of purchasing a book or buying a CD or downloading some software you have the right to use it however you don't have the right to resell it nor do you own its contents when you hire a photographer you are commissioning that photographer to create the images for you and that means that you have the right to use the photographs based on the agreement you have with the photographer the value of a photograph really does depend on how it's used and that is why photographers use a licensing system so they can charge their clients appropriately based on the use of the images for example a family wishing to commission a photographer to create a portrait of their family should not have to pay the same price as a large company who wishes to create a thousand billboard campaign that company wishes to create the big campaign is hoping to make money off of those photographs unlike the family who would just like the images for personal use now each photographer goes through the same struggle of figuring out how much to charge for each type of use because there's many different ways a photographer can figure out the best licensing strategy some photographers base their rate on distribution for example how many items are going to be printed using their photograph or what is the circulation of the magazine using their photograph or how many website visitors come to a specific website over a specific period of time some photographers rely on geography such as local usage regional usage or national usage and in some cases international usage some photographers use time and frequency as part of their licensing fee for example the client can use their photographs for one year or maybe two years or five years or maybe they can only use the photograph one time this may all seem unnecessary and complicated but believe me the laws are in place to protect you imagine you took a photograph and you gave it to your friend for a small promotion for their local store and the next thing you know you see your photograph on television and then on Billboard's and in magazines and your rank what what happened and then you find out that your friends sold your great photograph for a lot of money and didn't even tell you about it well the copyright laws prevent little scenarios like that from happening it is true that the copyright laws can be abused by companies large and small the fact is this can happen with any law or write it's important to understand that just because somebody purchases a photograph doesn't mean they own the photograph unless the photographer transfers that right to them however a copyright again is a right and it's extremely valuable so if you want to purchase a copy right chances are you'll be paying more than if you just license the photograph from the photographer so what questions do you have about licensing photography put them in the comments below this is a really important topic and I'm looking forward to reading your questions and having a great conversation that can help other photographers and people looking for information about the practice of licensing photography