Copyrights are created at the click of the shutter. But to enforce your rights in court for infringement claims, you must first register your copyright before you bring suit in federal court. Period. It doesn’t matter when the infringement is committed or the registration is completed, you still must register before filing suit.

It’s too bad that a freelance writer, Glynn Wilson, in Alabama didn’t learn this lesson earlier. He recently sued Kitty Kelley alleging that she used without permission some of his material for her best-selling book about the Bush family, “The Family: The Real Story of the Bush Dynasty.” The validity of his claim will never be decided in court. He had to withdraw his copyright infringement suit after realizing that he was likely to lose because he had failed to register his copyright with the United States Copyright Office. http://www.nytimes.com/2005/03/19/arts/19kell.html

Since as photographers, we have always licensed (rented) our photos, it is shocking to us to find a photobuyer assuming that their payment for a photo represents both present and future use of the photo.

Unless a “work-for-hire” agreement is arranged in writing between the photobuyer and the stock photographer, payment for the use of a photo is for one-time rights only.

American Airlines is sponsoring a “Why You Fly” contest. The grand prize is a year’s worth of flying, and most anyone could use that. You enter by submitting a photo, an essay or a video.

On the contest website, you get to the page that is titled, “Legal Terms and Conditions.” You have to scan down to read the entire text. While most folks might “accept” the terms without reading them, this has some fine print that a photographer should read.