Talk:Wikilegal/Authorship and Copyright Ownership

The Example of the Third Party Photographer

Where is a Third here? Who is second? --Itu (talk) 21:47, 6 August 2014 (UTC)

Probably not a good choice of words. Common request to bystander: "Will you take a photo of us?" So in that case the bystander is the "third person." But, generically, these are being discussed on Commons as "bystander photos" or "bystander selfies." They are a very common kind of photo. --Abd (talk) 18:23, 12 March 2015 (UTC)

It seems the bystander photos aren't as problematic as they have been treated on Commons. Often it has been thought that the photographer is the author, and as no contact information was retained, the photo would be an orphan work. According to the discussion on this page, the subject posing will usually have control of most aspects of the photo (pose, lighting, rough timing, rough angle, choice of camera, film and camera settings), and will thus be at least co-author. If a co-author has right to licence the photo without consulting co-authors, they can upload the photo on Commons with a non-exclusive free licence. They cannot ask for payment for use of the photo, as the revenue would need to be shared (unless they put part of the revenue in a separate fond/purse, to be given to the photographer at a later time never to come). Are there any remaining problems for Commons? Does the law differ significantly in other countries? –LPfi (talk) 08:37, 21 April 2022 (UTC)