Jodi's+Page

Determining Ownership of the Picture
It is often difficult to determine who owns the picture; There may be little or no information about the rightful owner. More often than not, the owner of the work is the photographer, or, in certain situations, the employer of the photographer. The subject of the photo generally has nothing to do with the owner. For example, if you hire a photographer to take photos at a wedding, the photographer owns the copyright. If you want the photo, you must have the photographer sign a document.

Obtaining Ownership of the Picture
If you know who owns the picture, you can ask them directly. If you don't know, you can write a request to the U.S Copyright Office and ask them to conduct a search for you, or you can search their records on your own. A search of registrations, renewals, and recorded transfers of ownership made before 1978 requires a manual search of their files. Upon request, the staff of the office will search at a rate of $165 an hour. To search on your own requires no fee. The Copyright Office will not honor a request for a copy of someone else's protected work without written authorization from the copyright owner or from his or her designated agent.



Sources: http://www.copyright.gov/help/faq/faq-fairuse.html http://www.copyright.gov/help/faq/faq-fairuse.html http://www.utsystem.edu/ogc/intellectualproperty/imagguid.htm [|US-CopyrightOffice-Seal.svg]