4. Of Rights and Wrongs

In the United States, as a creator of artistic works—your photos in this case—you have the legal right to control how your photos are used for a limited period of time (your lifetime plus 70 years). This right is what is known as copyright, and it is the same right extended to authors, composers, playwrights, and other artists creating new works that are fixed in some tangible form. Assuming you are not working on someone else’s time or dime (in a work-for-hire situation), the moment you create a photo you own the copyright to that work. When you make your photos available on a stock site, you are saying that you are willing to let others use your creative work in exchange for a licensing fee. That is the foundation ...

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