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Holmes874

: Would this be copyright or patent issue I'll keep it simple. As a hobby I do photo edits for people on Instagram to help them promote things, in this case an up-and-coming body builder/power

@Holmes874

Posted in: #ClientRelations #Copyright

I'll keep it simple. As a hobby I do photo edits for people on Instagram to help them promote things, in this case an up-and-coming body builder/power lifter. For the most part he has always just reposted them on his page and ask me to make edits with specific information to promote events. Well recently I created an image for him, and now he's saying he wants to put it on a t-shirt and then distribute.

My question is: is there anything I can gain from this even though I never claimed a patent or copyright on my images?

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@Speyer780

Lesson 1: Always have a contract. That contract should specify who owns the copyright to the source image and who owns the copyright to the final image, and who gets paid for what when the photo is used elsewhere.

Since you don't, you have to wing it. If the client provided the original photo, the copyright of the original photo belongs to the client (provided it doesn't belong to a third party).

If all you did was touch up the photo or add some cute filters, IMHO you haven't done anything worth copyrighting, and you're stuck.

If you altered it significantly — if you've added text, cropped, changed the color balance, etc. — then that's something you can copyright.

In this case, I would find out how many shirts he plans on distributing, and if it's for one event or an ongoing promotion. If it's a one-off, ask for a lump sum. If it's ongoing and he'll be reprinting the shirt, ask for royalties.

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