Who Do they Belong to?

Before the current Copyright Act became effective in 1978, someone who commissioned an independent contractor to take photos or create other material automatically owned the copyright in the photos or material. Under current law, however, the independent contractor owns the copyright unless the parties agree otherwise in writing. We posed a question to our copyright columnist, Dianne Brinson. "Does this mean that freelancers who take photos for UPI or the Associated Press own the copyrights in the photos they take?"

She responded, "I'm just guessing, but I suspect that UPI and the Associate Press require freelance photographers to sign assignment or "work made for hire" agreements. An assignment is a transfer of copyright ownership. A freelance photographer who assigns the copyright in a photo no longer owns the copyright. The party to whom the copyright is assigned does.

A party who hires a freelancer to shoot photos to be used in certain types of works can acquire ownership of the copyrights in the photos by getting the freelancer to sign a work made for hire agreement. If UPI and the Associate Press don't get assignments or work made for hire agreements from photographers, the photographers own the copyrights in the photos."