Michael Geist's new Toronto Star column deals with a proposed Canadian law that will give photocgraphers copyright in their works, not the people who commission their photos. Sounds like a good idea, but boy, is this a badly written law. Check it out:
As anyone who has used a wedding photographer or taken their children for portraits can attest, consumers hire photographers to capture their precious life moments with the expectation that the resulting photographs belong to them. While photographers may seek permission from consumers to use a particularly good picture to hang in their storefront window or place in their portfolio, the current law requires photographers to first obtain the commissioning party's authorization…
[U]nbounded by any limitations in the law, photographers might sell such photos as stock photography.
Moreover, a change in the law would literally force consumers to track down their photographer (or the photographer's heirs) in order to obtain permission to use their own archived pictures.
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