What does copyright mean?
Our nation’s founding fathers determined that it was in the public interest that the creative works of a person’s mind and spirit should belong, for a limited time, to the creator. The protection of these works is called “copyright.” The United States Copyright Law grants the copyright owner exclusive rights to their creative work for a specific period of time or term. The term of copyright protection for works published prior to 1978 is 95 years from the date of publication. For works published after 1977 the term is equal to the length of the life of the author/creator plus 70 years. By law, the copyright owner is the only one who has the right to reproduce their work. If any other party wants to reproduce the material in any manner, permission must be obtained from the copyright owner. Copyrighted creative works such as musical compositions are often referred to as “intellectual property.” That is exactly how they should be treated: as the property of the copyright owner.
Copyright is a form of protection provided by the laws of the United States (title 17, U.S. Code) to the authors of “original works of authorship”, such as photography. Section 106 of the 1976 Copyright Act gives the owner of copyright the exclusive right to do the following: • To reproduce the work in copies • To prepare derivative works based upon the work • To distribute copies of the work to the public by sale or other transfer of ownership, or by rental, lease, or lending • To display the copyrighted work publicly. Basically, SkyShots Photography original photographs and derivative images belong to us, and you may not use them in any way without our agreement. We provide our clients with a license to use the images they have purchased, although we remain the copyright-holder. For further information, see the official Copyright Office website.
