Who owns and/or controls photography taken of a celebrity over a period of time?

PHOTOGRAPHERS BEST OPRAH!

            The issue of who owns and/or controls photography taken of a celebrity over a period of time keeps reoccurring as public figures continually attempt to assert either control over use or actual ownership of the copyright of such photos. A recent case in Chicago resoundingly determined that copyright ownership is retained by the photographers.

            Paul Natkin and Stephen Green shot some 60,000 images of Oprah Winfrey over a ten-year period and gave her permission to use them for publicity purposes only. When she used 11 of them in her best-selling weight-loss book entitled, "Make the Connection" (without permission of course), a copyright infringement claim followed against Oprah and her company, Harpo Productions, Inc.

            The Court rejected Oprah's argument that she was a joint author because she, and her production company, determined the setting for the shots and the people who were in the photos. The Court also rejected the argument that the photographers were her employees, and therefore the photos were works made for hire.

            The Court held that, on the contrary, there was no evidence that the photographers intended to share copyright and since they did not receive employee benefits or had tax withheld, they were not employees. Therefore Oprah did not own the copyrights.

            The Court did not rule on whether Oprah had a right by agreement to use eleven photos, since that was a question of fact, and scheduled a trial date on that issue.

            However, Oprah, since she lost the copyright ownership issue, quickly settled.

            The case should give pause to those celebrities or producers of talk shows and sporting events who claim they own the copyright merely because they produced the event.

            It is, of course, better to eliminate the issue in the first place by having a proper and appropriate contract which recites usage rights granted and that ownership is retained by the photographer.