Why I Decided to Register the Copyright in All* My Photos
*Not all of them, as I'll explain
I recently embarked on a project that I knew would be horrible and annoying, but also necessary. I decided to actually register the copyright in my photos, but only the photos that I’ve actually published, either on Instagram, my website, or via my Secret Boozehound Calendar.
To give you the briefest overview of how copyright law works, as soon as something that’s eligible for copyright protection is “fixed,” it automatically becomes protected by U.S. copyright law. Taking a photo and creating a digital representation meets the requirement of being “fixed,” so I already technically have a copyright in every single photo I’ve ever taken.
But there’s a difference between having a copyright and registering that copyright. If you want to sue someone for copyright infringement, it’s not enough to just say that you have the copyright in something. It has to actually be registered with the U.S. Copyright Office. Registration is required if you want to sue someone for infringement.
Obviously, as a former copyright lawyer, I knew all this. And yet I’ve never bothered to register any of my photos with the Copyright Office. So why now?
I recently had a situation with a PR company stealing one of my photos. They wanted to use it for submission to The Zoe Report (a blog) for a feature on cocktails related to Bridgerton (because the new season recently came out). The PR company represents a spirits portfolio consisting of many different brands. I had done an Instagram post for a brandy brand back in 2023. The post didn’t include any usage rights for them; it was strictly a sponsored post. (Not even really sponsored because I didn’t charge them. That’s a different problem, lol.)
The brandy brand reached out via Instagram to ask if they could use the photo for this Bridgerton situation. I told them there was a licensing fee involved; they said they’d get back to me. I never heard anything. But then one day, weeks later, I randomly thought about this situation and decided to Google “Bridgerton cocktail recipes” just to see what came up. Sure enough, The Zoe Report piece had come out (a mere six hours before I Googled!) and the first cocktail listed had my photo.
I WAS PISSED. I was so pissed that I didn’t even do an IG Story about it because I knew it would just be a string of profanities. I DMed my contact at the brand to let them know that stealing my photo was unacceptable and that they now owed me triple the licensing fee I originally quoted. I also emailed the relevant person at the PR firm, whose email I just happened to have.
Long story short, I eventually threatened to sue them for copyright infringement if they didn’t pay me for the usage and take down the photo. Considering that the penalty for willful infringement (when you know something is protected and you use it anyway, like they did) can be up to $150,000, I was letting them off super easy.
And this is when I decided that I better register the copyright in all the photos I’ve published. Because in a digital age, it’s way too easy for people to steal your work.
Right off the bat I decided to only register photos created in 2022 or later. Partially because I take A LOT of photos, and partially because 2022 is when I started shooting with flash and the quality of my photos improved exponentially.
The good news when it comes to registering photos for copyright is that there’s a group option you can use. You don’t have to file a separate application for every photo. That would be insane.
Instead, you can do a group registration for up to 750 photos on one application, as long as the photos were all taken by the same person and published in the same year. The fee for the application is $55. For 2022 I have…wait for it…747 photos. Phew.
I’ve spent many dozens of hours over the past two weeks compiling the information needed to register the copyrights. You need two key pieces of information: the file names and the month and year of publication. The Copyright Office also wants each photo to have a title, but you can use the file name as the title, which is what I did.
The process itself is unbelievably tedious. First I had to scroll alllllllllll the way back to January 2022 in my Instagram profile and make a list of the names of all the drinks I posted and the month I posted them. Then I had to dig through the hard drive where all my photos are stored and find the exact file names to go with the photos I posted. Then I had to create a folder containing just the photos for each copyright application. (I did this by years, so I have a folder for 2022, 2023, and 2024.)
And then I got to the really hard part—dealing with the antiquated copyright registration system. They have a website and an electronic filing system, but it honestly would have been easier for me to print my spreadsheet, put the photos on a thumb drive, and mail the whole thing to them.
It took me three hours just to file the 2022 application. Three hours.
I won’t bore you with all the details of how the process works, but my god, it’s terrible. I’ll be filing the 2023 application later this week. I won’t file 2024 until early 2025, once I’m finished publishing photos in 2024. But I’ve already started a spreadsheet to keep track of what I’m publishing, so that part will be done by the time I’m ready to file the application.
Oh, and in case you’re wondering, I’m not going to sue the PR company after all. We came to terms. But at least next time (and there will 100% be a next time), I’ll be prepared.
Got questions about the copyright registration process or copyright in general? I’m happy to answer them.
In the meantime, I need a drink.
Cheers!