The Library of Congress in Washington D.C.

Thomas Jefferson Building

A few months ago I interviewed Carolyn E. Wright, an attorney who specializes in copyright issues in the photography field. Please check out her great answers here:

Photography, Copyright, and the Law

As promised, I’m following this interview with part two, in my multiple part series on the subject of photography copyright. I’ve been given permission to distribute some very valuable information on how copyright affect those of us who create photography as well as those of you that use it. Please follow the link below to read the article:

© COPYRIGHT – Part 2

Photography Copyright Information

It would not have been possible to write this article without a lot of help, so I’m very grateful for the co-operation given to me by the ASMP, PACA, APA, and Copyright Alliance.  Copyright is a vital issue for photographers, illustrators and other visual artists, and I hope that I’m able to shed some light on the intricacies of how copyright applies to photography in particular. I’ll have a permanent link in the sidebar to my blog, with links to each of the articles about copyright. My hope is that this will serve as a handy reference point for photographers who are keen to learn more about how to protect their work from copyright infringement.

There is a LOT of information in this article, with many links to even more resources and information. While it may seem a bit overwhelming, there is help available to photographers who want to register their copyright with the the United States Copyright Office at the Library of Congress. I’ll have more information on how to find this help in Copyright – part three. This third part of the series, will present what I think is a perfect solution to a photographer’s copyright registration, and legal needs. Look for part three to be published on my blog in August.

Supreme Court of the United States

United States Supreme Court Building

It was an obvious choice of photos to post along with this introduction to my Photography Copyright Information page. The Library of Congress is the place where photographers send their images to get copyright registration at the United States Copyright Office. It’s a spectacular building on the inside too, as you can see from a previous shot I posted here: The Beautiful Interior of the Library of Congress.

The second photo is of the U.S. Supreme Court, which resides just a few hundred steps up the street from the Library of Congress. Rather fitting, since the whole issue of copyright has been in the courts for just about as long as the United States has been a country. I found it interesting that those police officers that were standing on the steps of the courthouse, had no problem with me taking all the time in the world to photograph this very high security zone. However, later that day I had a cop run after me just because I was carrying my tripod,  to tell me that I can’t use it anywhere on Capitol Hill. Hmmm… One of these days I’d really like to know what the big deal is about using a tripod. I can think of a lot of other things that the police should be worrying about, including copyright violators, but I digress.

Please feel free to share the Photography Copyright Information , with anyone who needs some guidance in the sometimes confusing world of copyright, photography, and the law. For handy reference, there are permanent links to the articles on copyright in the sidebar of my blog.

 

Enjoy more travel photos and stories: