Should I be worried about ownership of photos taken on my camera by others?

Question

If you are at a social event, such as a party, and someone wants borrows your camera to take a couple of photos (which will typically be of the photographer!), are you concerned about copyright issues?

(Ignore for a second the many other issues, such as your fear for theft, damage, thumbprints on the lens, lost opportunities and your cynical doubt that anyone but you can actually take a reasonable photo.)

I spoke to one (amateur) photographer recently, who said he flatly refused to let others borrow his camera, due to two fears:

• They would claim copyright on the photos they had taken. I assume that is a low risk, but a fair one: Without any other agreement in place, the copyright belongs to the person who composed the shot, not the person who owns the camera, right? I could see some shared copyright in situations where the lighting has been set-up by one person, the composition by another, the subject created by a third, etc.

• They might (incorrectly) claim copyright on other photos that he had taken.

This sounds rather implausible to me. I would have thought the onus would be on the borrower to prove the photos were taken by them.

Am I being naive? Has this happened to you and/or are you concerned about it?

Update: I assume in this scenario, that there has been no agreement beforehand as to the disposition of the copyright.

Answer

It is a regular occurance that someone insists on taking a photo of me at weddings, saying "you taking all these photos but I bet you never have any of you!" when in fact I have a photo of me at pretty much every one! Here are some of the best ones:

I find it impolite to refuse, so I simply don't use the photos (they are usually out of focus anyway). In fact I actually quite like to have the photos to remember the event by, but in any case they very rarely end up in the album unless the couple request it. In the occasions where I've given my camera to someone I trust I'll usually shoot a photo of the floor before and after, and then if I do anything with the photos I'll add an appropriate attribution.

The only tricky case I see is when a stranger uses your camera at an event and produces a good image that you want to be able to send to the client, but you have no idea who actually took it. In this case you could probably get away with using it under the orphaned works legislation, though if you really want to cover your back just don't use the image!

If someone does take a photo with your camera which turns out to be valuable that shouldn't be a difficult situation at all, you simply don't claim credit or profit from it! When I shoot with other people's cameras I will do my very best to obtain a copy of the photos on the day by whatever means possible. This prevents any disputes before they even start!

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