We take a look at the governing law behind photography copyright with a helping hand from Dr Jen Le Mière – registered intellectual property lawyer, rider and event horse owner, to delve deeper into the Dos and Don'ts of photography and copyright in relation to your event images.
 
If you buy an image as a hardcopy it does not automatically give you the copyright for the images. 
 
The Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988, (CDPA), section 90(1) and (3) explicitly state that the copyright in any image, including hardcopy images can only be assigned to you if there is an assignment in writing, which is signed by the assignor (i.e. the photographer).  What the majority of people fail to understand is the separation of the rights to the tangible asset (i.e. the picture)and the rights in the copyright.  By purchasing the hardcopy you simply own that – the hard copy of that image, you have not instantly purchased the copyright as well and therefore the right to copy and distribute. Licenses may also give certain rights to purchasers of copyright works, but it is extremely rare for any licence to be given automatically simply by purchasing a hardcopy image.
 
The copying of a hard copy image is specifically noted as an infringement of copyright in section 17 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
 
Section 15(1)(a) states the that copyright owner (i.e. the photographer), has the exclusive right to copy the work.  Section 16(2) gives further clarification in that copyright in the work is infringed by a person who, without a license from the copyright owner does any of the “restricted act”, which includes copying and distributing.  In simplistic terms – copying a photo without the photographer’s consent is illegal.

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So what must we not do?

• Copy the image either as a whole or a ‘substantial part’ (CDPA 1988, s16(2)
• Copy directly or indirectly – for example a picture of a screenshot of a photo. (CDPA 1988, s16(3)(b))
• Reproducing the image in any material form, including storing the image in any medium by electronic means (CDPA 1988, s17(1) and (2))

 
This means NO taking pictures of pictures, NO copying of pictures from photographers websites, NO copying of images from Social Media and storing them with a view to reproducing them in another medium.

​If a photographer takes a picture of you, you do not own the copyright of the image, the photographer does.
 
Photographs are a category of artistic works (CDPA 1988, s4(1)(a)), for which the default position is that the author owns the copyright (CDPA 1998, s11(1)). and the author is the person who creates it (CDPA 1988, s9(1)).

“What frustrates me is when they don’t ask and then they take a poor quality photograph of the print and post that on Social Media.  For me quality of the product, be it in print or digital formats are very important, I don’t want my name associated with poor quality goods!” Tim Wilkinson - Equestrian Media Photographer

There is a general misconception that people believe because they feature in the picture that they have some right over that image.  However, in the UK, there is no ‘personality right’ as such.  However that said, there is an outside chance possibility that you could look to prevent photographers from using your image for commercial purposes, but the prospect of success is quite small.  The Spice Girls failed in this type of action in 1997 when someone sold stickers with their image on, however Eddie Irvine won against Talk Sport Radio in 2002.

But what affect is the issue of 'stolen images' having on the equestrian event photography industry?  We've seen a number of photographers stop attending equestrian events due to loss of revenue and the hassle incurred by riders copy images from their websites and one photographer we spoke to will now only offer onsite printing and onsite ordering and has stopped displaying event images online or on social media due to the amount of images stolen.

Rose Lewis, professional full time photographer, of Daydream Equine Art was pleased to speak to The Bit UK about the equine photography industry and discuss her views on supporting events with photography services.  We asked Rose, 'Does the issue of riders copying and stealing images online put you off attending events?'

"It does - sitting there for a whole day from geting up at 5am and working until 7pm, often staying up for hours either travelling home or editing images - sometimes soaked through or completely frozen to find your images all over social media with your watermark right across the images doesn't make you want to go back and isn't profitable!"

​What implications could we face for breaking the rules?
 
There are numerous implications set out in s96(2) of the CDPA 1988 – these includes claims for damages, injunctions and even criminal issues (CDPA 188,s107) with a penalties of up to 2 year in prison and/or fines of up to £50,000.
 
In a nutshell – steal/copy/use an image without a license an image and the photographer can sue you; you’ll end up losing, paying their costs as well as your own, you will have to give back all infringing articles and will also have to pay them for the things that you have done.

Image courtesy of Tim Wilkinson Photography/Eventing Images

So what can you do?

• Comment on, 'Like' and share images that photographers may have tagged you in on Social Media, or tag yourself in the image.
• Share digital files that you have purchased with a licence to do so on Social Media
• Display hard copy images in your home or gift them to friends or family
• Engage with photographers to ask their permission to share online
• Purchase images with a commercial license to use them for commercial gain,  i.e. selling horses, or advertising your services
• Enjoy the artwork produced by the photographers

​But what should the equestrian world be doing about image theft and copyright infringements? Better education by national bodies? More guidance and monitoring from events and venues?
 
Let us know your thoughts!

“Education to riders is a good thing, but some will still not take any notice, the younger riders used to be terrible, they would spend hours searching for images of themselves and post any sort of rubbish because the image was of them, sadly it no longer limited to the younger riders it is riders at all levels and all ages that are doing now.  Social media isn't helping, but on the flip side without Social Media I wouldn't getting any work as ALL of my corporate work and most of publication work has come about due to or via Social Media.” Tim Wilkinson