It's not at all impossible or really difficult under work for hire provisions. It's another clause, that's all.
The points here are the following: unless there is an explicit work for hire agreement or copyright grant, the copyright stays with the artist.
Most photographers don't include such an agreement, as it's more work.
If photographers want to use the work they produced under a work for hire agreement in promotional materials, such usage rights can be reserved in the work for hire agreement.
There's no problem with such an arrangement -- what we face here is one of three things: laziness (no one thinks to bring up the issue, so no one takes the proper steps), greed (the photographer wants to be able to extort more money for reproduction rights), or change-in-law issues (copyright terms were different 100 years ago, etc.) A closely related issue to the last is that, while people will be careful to retain their parents' wedding photos, they may not be so careful with the work-for-hire or copyright assignment agreements, not knowing what they actually mean.
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Date: 2008-04-12 07:53 pm (UTC)The points here are the following: unless there is an explicit work for hire agreement or copyright grant, the copyright stays with the artist.
Most photographers don't include such an agreement, as it's more work.
If photographers want to use the work they produced under a work for hire agreement in promotional materials, such usage rights can be reserved in the work for hire agreement.
There's no problem with such an arrangement -- what we face here is one of three things: laziness (no one thinks to bring up the issue, so no one takes the proper steps), greed (the photographer wants to be able to extort more money for reproduction rights), or change-in-law issues (copyright terms were different 100 years ago, etc.) A closely related issue to the last is that, while people will be careful to retain their parents' wedding photos, they may not be so careful with the work-for-hire or copyright assignment agreements, not knowing what they actually mean.