photography display & copyright laws?

Question

For church, we display worship song lyrics with an lcd projector. The words are superimposed over a photo, usually a nice serene nature scene.

What would be the copyright laws involved in using photographs found on the web for this purpose? Do I need the expressed written consent of each photographer? (and on the web the photographer might not even be listed) Does copyright law even come into affect since the display of these images provides no profit?

Thanks.


note: I'm also an avid amateur photographer myself, so I definitely feel for the rights of photographers

Answer 1

The question is whether you want to be absolutely, 100% legal (follow David's advice) or whether you're most worried about actually being sued and found liable (Baklava's advice).

David is right. Technically, that's a copyright violation UNLESS the image has fallen into the public domain (or the photographer of the picture has dedicated the picture to the public domain). you wouldn't need express, written consent of each photographer (i.e. an oral "license" is fine, as would be a non-specific statement that the photographer will allow certain not-for-profit uses) but it's easier to prove if you get in a fight later.
If the owner has copyrighted the images with the US Copyright office, they can sue for "statutory damages" -- up to $20,000 PER INFRINGEMENT. Now, if they have not registered, then damages would just be their lost profits -- basically what you would have paid to display them.

Answer 2

By pulling pictures off of a website for display you run in to several copyright issues:
1. To download the picture from the site, you actually need permission both of the creator of the site and of the copyright holder of the picture (may or may not be the photographer)
2. To reproduce the picture you need permission of the copyright holder.
3. Profit is not needed to violate copyright laws. It is just as illegal for me to duplicate a CD and hand it out free as it is for me to charge for the copies. The only affect that profit would have is on damages.

Answer 3

You are the photographer. You created the images. If you hold the negatives or original digital images, then you are the copyright owner. If you gave him prints or digital copies without restrictions in a contract, he can do pretty much whatever he wants with them. However since you are the copyright owner, you may also do what you wish and earn all the money you can without his interference, if you haven't signed away the rights. You could waste money in an expensive lawsuit if you want to stop him from using your copyrighted images. He could probably sue you if you use these images and he hasn't signed a model release. In the end, if you don't work things out, you both could end up with NOTHING.

Answer 4

Hmmm, I see David's point, but don't think that you are getting into trouble here. You are not handing out the images to anyone or reproducing them for anyone for free. You are simply printing them out for your own one-time use that you, your church, and your congregation will not gain profit from. No one is going to report that you are violating any copyright laws, and certainly no one is going to spend the money and time on taking you to court over this. Sorry, but it's not being viewed by "the public", so I think you are fine and wouldn't sweat it on this one.