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Studio One Frames Ltd
The Old Church Hall
7 London Road
Little Clacton
Essex, CO16 9RW

Tel / Fax: 01255 860800
info@digitalprintdesign.co.uk

Copyright Law for Artists

We often get asked about copyright and what rights an artist has when either reproducing work for limited edition prints or placing work on a website. Hopefully this tutorial will clear up any confusion about copyright and an artists original and reproduced work.

Attributing copyright to a piece of your own work is as simple as you (the artist) being the originator with your stills, judgement, time and basically your artist talent that was summed up and placed onto a board, canvas, cut into a block of wood or stone or produced using a program on a computer. So you automatically become the first copyright holder. Photography (and Digital Photography) also falls into this. So;

"Copyright applies to original artistic works such as paintings, drawings, engravings, sculptures, photographs, diagrams, maps, works of architecture and works of artistic craftsmanship".

The 70 Year Rule for Original Work

The artist or creator of the original work will remain copyright holder and first owner for the life of the artist plus an additional 70 years. However, copyright is a form of intellectual property - which, just like physical property it can be brought, sold, inherited or passed on to another person or organisation. So you can sell the copyright of your painting, sculpture or photograph to another person for an agreed fee, this should be documented in a signed contract which states that the transfer of copyright has taken place - this transfer is called an 'assignment'.

Reproducing Your Work

As the artist and owner of the copyright, you have complete ownership of all copyright on any and all reproductions of your work. You are therefore the licensor who can instruct a company / studio like us to reproduce your work a specific way and if needed, for a limited period of time. Any digital / electronic copies of your work are also within the copyright held by you.

Photographing Your Work

You may want to have your work photographed for future reference, or to be placed on to a transparency so prints can be taken from those transparencies. If you are commissioning a photographer to photograph your work, you should agree that you (the artist) will retain copyright and the photographer will not acquire the copyright of any of the images that they take. This should be put into writing before any work starts.

Why do this? Well, there is a slight grey area as to who would own the copyright. As the photographer will use his or her skills, time and judgement in taking the photograph - they could argue that they automatically become the originator of that image by stating that the photograph could be described as an original and therefore the photographer would become the copyright owner of that image - even though the image is a reproduction of your original work.

Images on the Internet

As the artist, you have full control over where your work is seen electronically / digitally. From the 31st of October 2003, the right to communicate to the public by electronic transmission was exclusive to the copyright owner. This means that the public can have access to view your work only when (and where) chosen by the artist. This makes it clear that the 'digital' images of an artists work that are on the internet are owned by the artist and you have the right to ask a website owner to remove images of your work. The owner / editor / administrator of the website is solely responsible for the copyright infringement, the hosting company is therefore not held responsible.

Copyright for Commissioned Work

Unless stated, you the artist will have copyright on any commissioned work you produce. The person commissioning you can of course request the copyright to the finished work, which would also include rights to reproduce the work for sales of prints or merchandise.

I've Sold My Original - Have I Sold The Copyright Too?

No, if you are only selling the original work - you are not selling the copyright, they are two seperate entities. When you are selling an original piece of work, it is a good idea to have an agreement that is signed by both you the artist and purchaser that you are keeping copyright on the original as well as rights to reproduce the work for prints, etc.

Sources

www.artquest.org.uk/artlaw
www.patent.gov.uk
www.intellectual-property.gov.uk
painting.about.com [Copyright for artists FAQ]

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