The Copyright Act of 1957 protects photographer's rights in India, including both traditional photographs and online photographs. The law provides copyright protection for photographs as artistic works. Photographs are protected for 60 years from the date of publication or creation. The photographer who takes the photograph owns the copyright unless otherwise agreed. Photographs can be shared under certain Creative Commons licenses which allow others to use the work under specific conditions like attribution or non-commercial use.

1. The Copyright Act, 1957 is an exhaustive Act
which effectively safeguards the
Photographer’s rights in India. The law not
only protects the traditional/paper
photographs taken by the Photographers but
online photographs as well though not
expressly mentioned. The existing copyright
law can competently overcome the challenges
posed by latest technology and has a strong
legal base for the protection of copyright.

2. • Copyright in photography means that you own
an image you created. The law says you
created that image as soon as the shutter is
released.
• The photographer who pushed the button
owns the copyright.
• Photographs are protected under copyright
law as artistic work under Section 2 (c) of
Copyright Act 1957 in India

3. • In India, as per section 25 of the Copyright Act, the
Photographs are provided copyright protection for a
period of 60 years from the date of publication [this
just means the date of the photograph – you don’t
have to actually have it published in any magazine]
• Ordinarily, the author is the first owner of the
copyright in a work created by him. In case of a
photograph, the photographer will be the first owner
unless there is an agreement to the contrary. So even if
you own the camera but your friend takes a
photograph, which is stunning, your friend owns the
copyright to the image.

4. • A Photographer may opt to register the
copyright in the photograph
• Copyright commences as soon as the work is
created.
• Under copyright law the expression of idea is
copyrightable but not idea per se
• So, if I take a picture of the sunset and you take the
picture of the same sunset, I can’t stop you, but you use
my picture of the sunset on your T-Shirt, I can stop you

5. • a person other than a photographer may use
the photographs without any malafide
intention of attaining undue profits from it.
• A person can use the photographs for
teaching/research purposes, legislative
purposes, judicial proceedings.
• This falls under principle of fair use and are
permissible use of photographs without prior
consent of the photographer.

6. • Any violation of the rights of author/owner
amounts to copyright infringement.
• Also, the Courts in India have held that the
publication of a photograph by the
photographer without his permission by
copying it from another published material is
infringement of the copyright in the
photograph.

7. • Creative Commons (CC) is an internationally
active non-profit organisation that provides
free licences for creators to use when making
their work available to the public. These
licences help the creator to give permission
for others to use the work in advance under
certain conditions.
• It’s not separate from copyright, but instead is
a way of easily sharing copyrighted work.

8. The benefit of Creative Commons licensing is that it does not require complex negotiations or
legal representation in order to be able to use a Creative Commons-protected work. Unlike other
copyrighted works, a Creative Commons work will clearly show that it is available under a
Creative Commons licence, usually through the use of a ‘CC’ symbol followed by additional
symbols that explain what sorts of uses are permitted.

9. Attribution (CC BY)
• This requires people who use your work to
attribute it to you.
• No cropping the image to cut off your name or,
worse, replacing your name with theirs.
• All you need to do is attribute (say who the
original creator is, referring to the ‘by’ in the
licence name) the original creator(s).
• The protected work can be used in any way you
like, whether it is being used on a website or for a
song remix, and it does not matter whether the
use is commercial or non-commercial.

10. NON Commercial CC BYNC
• Creative Commons defines commercial use as
“primarily intended for or directed toward
commercial advantage or private monetary
compensation.”
• You can give it to people for free, but trying to
obtain money for the resulting work will be
considered in breach of that licence
• under a CC BYNC licence, you can use a song for a
remix, but you cannot sell the result

11. Attribution-ShareAlike (CC BYSA)
• This is the next most flexible type of licence. You
are allowed to do whatever you like with the
work, for commercial or non-commercial
purposes.
• on one condition – any work you create using
material licensed under a CCBYSA licence must
also be licensed under the same licence.
• That means anyone that wants to use the work
you created is free to do so, so long as they give
you credit for the work you created.

12. CC BY-ND (Attribution-No-Derivatives)
• you can use the work, you are not allowed to
change or modify it in any way whatsoever.
• A derivative work is a work that modifies the
original copyrighted work
• This means you cannot remix a song, or use it
in your short film
• People can copy the work as many times as
they want, and give it to whoever they want,
but they cannot change or adapt the work.