Copyright is about who owns the images and, in the UK, is covered by the Copyright, Designs & Patents Act 1988. Similar regulations apply in other countries, but my Terms & Conditions specify that UK Law shall apply in all circumstances.

Licensing is about giving permission for images to be used and is dealt with by by an agreement or Licence worked out between the copyright holder (in the UK that is the Photographer) and you, the client.

A licence can be designed to fit your needs. It will set out what type of uses it is agreed the photographs can be used, under what circumstances, where in the world they can be used and the length of time this agreement between you and the photographer lasts.

If you find you need to use the photographs in a way that is not covered by the licence or that they need to use them after the period of the licence has run out, all you need to do is contact us to negotiate further use, which may be at an extra cost.

If you need more than this we can quite easily negotiate the extended use and how it will affect the final fee, or you can go with the default licence - which will cover the uses you have initially specified, and which usually covers a 1 year usage - and negotiate any extensions they may need at a later date.

For further information please check out these very good resources for more in depth explanations:

Copyright for Clients - A guide to Copyright, for the use of photography buyers, issued by the Association of Photographers

Copyright Action, an FAQ prepared by EPUK (Editorial Photographers UK) mainly for the use of photographers, but containing much of interest to buyers and clients

For the complete legislative statute The Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988 can be found here - thanks to Jenkins, one of the largest and most successful intellectual property practices in the United Kingdom.

For more information relating to this site, please contact me - James King-Holmes (james@scitechimage.com)