[Heebie]

May 17, 2017 at 9:45 pm

I believe that depends on the agreement between yourself and the company the job is for.
If you’re working as their direct employee, then it’s highly likely your contract causes your work product when acting on their behalf to be their copyrighted material.
If you’ve been commissioned to do the photography for them, in your own business, or as a sole trader, then whatever the contract between you and them says is how it is… so if you didn’t give them a contract to sign that spelled out who owns the images, then it’s probably a “grey area” where they might be able to make a legal claim stick, and you might be able to, but they’ll likely have an entire “legal department” to fight you over it, whereas you’ll probably have you, and might have a single solicitor. (If that solicitor is good, he might very well win, but you might get bankrupted by his bill.)

You should always make sure that you know who retains the copyright on the images before you agree to click your shutter.

If you’re doing shoots for your own customers, you should still have a contract that spells out whether or not the client “purchases” the copyright fro you, if you retain the copyright but give them specific rights to use the photos for any reasons, with a clause saying they need to obtain permission from you before using them for any other purpose..can’t forget that clause, or if you retain the copyright and grant them no right to use the images for any reason without a separate contract with yourself for each usage case.

Always make sure the are signed by someone who has the authority to act on behalf of the company you’re working for. If Joe Bloggs from the mail room signs for a multinational, they’re not likely to be held bound due to the excuse “Joe Bloggs was not authorised to commit the company to contractual obligations” etc..

There should be some example contracts available online, although I think most of them are U.S. law, so you might not find anything particularly useful in Ireland, in which case contracting a solicitor to draw up a contract or set of contracts that you can use to protect yourself, and explain to you exactly when to use each one, would be a good idea.