Who Owns Your Graphics?

Food for thought...copyright law says the original owner of a creative work is the “author,” or the one who created it. An exception to this is when the work is prepared by an employee within the scope of his employment. This means that any outside writer, photographer or illustrator contracted by you or your agent holds the copyright, unless you have directed up front that the contractor assign the copyright to your business. 

This is important for many reasons. If you attempt to use the copyrighted work in an additional marketing piece, a secondary medium or additional application without specific permission, you may be accused of copyright infringement. This applies to the purchase of stock graphics as well. Be sure to clearly define and negotiate all uses for a given creation at the outset, or you could find yourself paying additional usage fees to the creator or legal fees to your attorney.

Steve