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ItalianoAs soon as you press the shutter, you own the copyright in your photo. No form, no fee, no © symbol needed. Here is what that right covers, how long it lasts, and the few differences between countries that matter in practice.
Automatic protection, with no formality
Under the Berne Convention, signed by 181 countries, copyright arises automatically when a work is created. A photograph is protected from the moment it exists, whether or not it has been published, registered or marked with ©.
One important exception in practice: in the United States, you must register the photo with the US Copyright Office before you can sue, and you can only claim statutory damages and lawyer’s fees if the photo was registered before the infringement (or within three months of first publication). Registering your best images in batches is cheap insurance if your work is used in the US.
The condition: originality
Copyright protects photos that reflect the photographer’s own creative choices: framing, angle, light, timing, composition, editing. In the EU this is the “author’s own intellectual creation” test; in the US a very low level of creativity is enough. In practice, almost every photo taken deliberately qualifies. Purely mechanical copies, such as a faithful scan of a flat painting, may not.
Moral rights and economic rights
Copyright gives you two kinds of rights:
- Economic rights: you alone decide who may copy, publish, print, adapt or share your photo, and on what terms. These rights can be licensed or sold.
- Moral rights: the right to be credited and to object to distortions of your work. They are strong and cannot be waived in France and much of the EU, weaker in the UK (where they must be asserted) and limited in the US to certain works of visual art.
What others cannot do without your permission
Without a licence, nobody may reproduce your photo on a website, in an online shop, on social media for commercial purposes, in print or in an advert. Crediting you is not a substitute for permission. Exceptions are narrow and depend on the country: fair use in the US, fair dealing in the UK, Canada and Australia, and a closed list in the EU (quotation, news reporting, parody, private copying).
Penalties for infringement
| Country | What you can claim |
|---|---|
| United States | Actual damages and profits, or statutory damages from $750 to $30,000 per work, up to $150,000 if wilful (registered photos) |
| United Kingdom | Damages (often based on a reasonable licence fee), additional damages for flagrant cases; small claims track of the IPEC for claims up to £10,000 |
| European Union | Damages covering lost revenue and moral harm, or a lump sum at least equal to the licence fee (Enforcement Directive 2004/48/EC) |
Serious commercial infringement can also be a criminal offence in many countries.
Copyright is not the same as image rights
Copyright protects the photographer. Image or personality rights protect the people shown in the photo. A site that uses your portrait of a model infringes your copyright; it may also infringe the model’s rights, which they can enforce separately. Conversely, owning the copyright does not by itself allow you to use someone’s likeness commercially without a model release.
Frequently asked questions
Do I need to put a © on my photos to be protected?
No. The © symbol is not required anywhere in the Berne Convention countries. It deters copying and tells people who the author is, and in the US it prevents an infringer from claiming they did not know.
Is a photo posted on Instagram free to use?
No. Posting a photo on social media does not put it in the public domain. The platform’s terms give the platform a licence, not other users or third-party sites.
How long does copyright in a photo last?
In the EU, the UK and the US, for the life of the author plus 70 years for photos by individuals. In the US, works made for hire last 95 years from publication.
Is crediting the photographer enough to use a photo?
No. A credit is expected, but it does not replace the author’s permission, which may be free or paid.