Let’s say a photographer owns the copyright to a photo. Without any other agreement in place, if that photo was published in a newspaper, would the photographer still own the copyright to that picture? Of course they would.
What if the photo was used in a book, on a billboard or on TV? Would the photographer still own the copyright? Yes they would. The medium in which the picture is used doesn’t affect copyright. Surely this is obvious.
So why do some folks think that a picture “found” on the Internet would have no copyright?
Most small copyright infringement cases never make it to court. But in 2014, one such case, (il est en Français), was decided in Quebec small claims court. In this case, the plaintiff was not the photographer but she was the copyright owner of the picture in question.
The company accused of copyright infringement used the defence that they found the picture on the Internet after doing a Google image search. They assumed the photo was free for the taking.
The defendants also said the picture was only used small on their web site and in any case, they didn’t make any money from the picture. Of course, none of this really matters and the court ruled in favour of the copyright owner.
In its ruling, the court reaffirmed that the Copyright Act still applies in a digital environment. If a work is used, reproduced or distributed in an intangible medium, like the Internet, the exact same copyright rules are in effect. A copyright owner does not lose any rights if the work is converted to a digital medium.
