Photographer copyright infringement: what to do

Client work: who holds the rights?

As the photographer you own the copyright in what you shoot unless you have signed it away (§ 201, § 204). Most commissions grant the client a license instead: certain uses, for a certain time, in certain places. That leaves two different situations.

• A third party is using the image, with no license from you or your client. You hold the copyright and can enforce it, though you may want to tell the client first, as they may be pursuing it already.
• Your client is using it beyond the license: longer, in more places, or after the term ran out. That is a contract and licensing dispute, often best resolved by a conversation, and if not, by a lawyer. A takedown notice against your own client rarely helps the relationship or the outcome.

If you assigned the copyright to the client, the right to enforce went with it. The notice then has to come from the client or its agent.

Records that make every route easier

• Raw files and out-takes from the same shoot, with original metadata.
• Registration with the US Copyright Office. Group registration options exist for published and unpublished photographs, which keeps the cost per image down.
• License records: who you licensed each image to, for what, and until when. A use that matches a license you forgot is not an infringement.
• Copyright management information: your name and copyright notice in the file’s metadata and, where you use one, a watermark. Knowingly removing it to conceal infringement can be separately unlawful under 17 U.S.C. § 1202.

When a takedown is the right call

Removal is the sensible route when the use is by an individual account or a site with no realistic prospect of paying, when the image is being used in a way that harms your reputation or a client’s, when the same photo keeps turning up across many sites, or when you simply do not want it there.

Before filing, consider fair use. A critic discussing your exhibition, a news report about an image that became newsworthy, or commentary on your work may be fair, and the sender of a notice must form a good-faith view that the use is not (Lenz v. Universal, 9th Cir. 2015). Our fair-use check keeps a dated record of your reasoning.

Then route each copy: a website to its host’s designated agent, a social post through the platform’s copyright form, a marketplace listing through its intellectual-property report, and Google Images through a separate request. The details are in DMCA notices for photographers.

Finding the uses in the first place

Most photographers find unlicensed uses by accident. Searching for your strongest images periodically is more reliable. Reverse image search finds identical copies and many edited ones, though it misses private accounts and some heavily altered versions. Our photo search labels each result by how it was matched: identical file, same file name, or a lookalike to compare by eye.

Exclusive licenses and agencies

An exclusive license is a transfer of copyright ownership under US law (17 U.S.C. § 101), and an exclusive licensee owns the rights it was granted (§ 201(d)(2)). If you have licensed an image exclusively, for a territory, a medium or a period, the licensee may be the party entitled to enforce within that scope, and may already be doing so. Check the agreement before sending anything, and tell the licensee what you have found.

If an agency or stock library represents your images, its contract with you usually says who handles unlicensed uses. Some agencies enforce on their contributors' behalf; others leave it to the photographer. Two parties sending notices about the same use confuses the recipient and can undercut a license negotiation already under way.

Where you hold all the rights yourself, keep a simple register of each image and every license granted against it. It turns the question 'is this use licensed?' into a lookup rather than a search through old emails, and it is the first thing anyone helping you will ask for.