Answers to Your Biggest Questions About Image Copyrights

When you’re trying to market your business or build your brand, sharing images is a big part of your effort. Because you know “a picture is worth a thousand words.” Because you know they make it easier to get content out the door. Because you know they help stop the scroll. But—do you know if you actually have the legal right to use the ones you are?

There are so many ways the law impacts how we all run our businesses, but we aren’t lawyers and make guesses about what’s okay and what’s not. And one of the things we’ve seen wedding business owners making guesses about is whether or not it’s okay to use any old image. So, rather than spend a ton of time reading through legal jargon you don’t actually understand or crossing your fingers and just hoping it’s okay, we wanted to ask an actual lawyer—is it okay for me to use these images?

The short answer is probably not. But obviously there is more to it and ways to cover your ass. So we had a chat with lawyer for wedding pros, Caroline Fox, and you can watch the conversation in full below and learn the answers to these all-important legal questions that do affect your business!

• What is a copyright and how does something get copyrighted?

• What copyrights do different types of wedding pros have? 

• How do wedding pros get themselves into trouble?

• How can wedding pros avoid copyright infringement?

Caroline also took questions from the group that joined us live!

• So, no more grabbing images from Pinterest for mood boards?

• So images and video taken by photographers/videographers can be used by for example planners, provided there's a clause covering this in the contract, right?

• Does this consequence go for video just like photos?  For example, using a venue video from Google.  If you have to get permission, do you go to the venue or videographer?

• I always ask my clients to initial a clause within the contract that permits my company to photo and promote on social media, advertising or other for their invitations. Is that enough?

• Do you need written consent from photographers — or if they send them to you, is that enough?

• I have a photographer who I regularly work with and they always send me the galleries that we've worked on. Do we need a contract between us for me to use the photos for content?

• What if you're reposting a pin on Instagram?

• Do you have a resource for copyright release?

Need a few contracts after learning all about image copyrights? Be sure to visit Caroline’s contract template shop and pick up what you need!