Is a wide scene photo at a public market copyright infringement if a vendor's prints appear in it?
Asked 1/9/2012
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I photographed an overall market scene from about 20+ feet away, using a relatively wide angle to capture the vendors and neon lighting. One vendor was a photographer selling his own prints, and some of those prints may have appeared as a small part of the scene. He shouted that I was "taking pictures of my photos" and claimed it was copyright infringement.
I was not trying to copy or closely photograph his individual work; I was shooting the broader environment. This was at Pike Place Market in Seattle, WA. In a situation like this, is making that kind of wide scene image generally considered copyright infringement? Does it matter whether the market is public or private property?
Originally by Photography Stack Exchange contributor. Source · Licensed CC BY-SA 4.0
Photography Stack Exchange contributor
14y ago
2 Answers
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No, that is not copyright infringement. As long as you have the right to take photos (e.g. public property in the US), you cannot infringe anybody's copyright merely by pressing a shutter.
Even if you copied his photo exactly with your camera, that is not copyright infringement. You need to use the copied image in an inappropriate manner for copyright infringement to occur.
Originally by user7777. Source · Licensed CC BY-SA 4.0
user7777
14y ago
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Probably not. Simply pressing the shutter is not, by itself, generally copyright infringement. In your scenario, the other photographer’s prints appear to have been only a small incidental part of a wider market scene, which is unlikely to be treated the same as deliberately reproducing his work.
There is some legal nuance: photographing someone else’s photo can raise copyright questions if their work is a significant subject of your image. But when it is a minor, incidental element in a broader scene, that is much less likely to be a problem.
A separate issue is location. If you were somewhere you were allowed to photograph, that supports your position. If the market or property owner has rules against photography, they may be able to restrict shooting on the premises even if the copyright claim is weak.
So, based on the facts given, your wide environmental shot from a distance was likely not copyright infringement. The stronger practical question is whether the venue allowed photography.
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