We’re often asked what your pet’s AGoldPhoto can and cannot be used for. This post hopefully makes what the uses are clear.
The quick answer to the “Who owns the photo?” question is, we do, as the photographer.
With that said, we do allow certain uses of the photos as well.
In previous research on this subject, we came across David Slater, a wildlife photographer whose goal was to have the crested black macaque in Indonesia take a selfie. Wikipedia and other websites were using the photo without permission and when asked to stop, they refused.
Wikipedia claimed that the photograph was uncopyrightable because the monkey was the actual creator of the image. The US Copyright Office subsequently ruled that animals cannot own copyrights.
With that said, the person/human who pushes the button on the camera owns the rights to the photo.
One of our photos was used without permission
If you have been following us for a while, you’ll remember an internet media company used one of our photos as a preview image for their video, which got over 20 million views. After numerous messages from us and our fans, they agreed to credit us as well as pay $300 for its use, which we donated to Humane Society Tampa Bay.
The incident caused us a lot of turmoil and time wasted, but it had a happy ending.
Viral Reddit Photo
Recently, a happy customer posted their dog’s photo on Reddit and at the time of this post, has received close to 20,000 upvotes.
After seeing it, a popular instagram account reached out to us to ask if they could share the same photo to their 600k+ fans, which they saw on Reddit. The pup’s owner agreed for it to be shared and asked us to be credited. Kudos to Ace’s owner and DrSmashlove for asking for permission before sharing.
We do add our logo in the bottom right corner, but we also always use the same gray background, which helps make our photos recognizable.
Sharing on social media is of course allowed
We love it when pet owners share our photos online, but we ask that you tag us on Facebook or Instagram. We make our living taking photos so it’s important that other users on social media can easily find us if they would like photos taken of their pets too.
If you are new to tagging, on either social media platform, you can use the “@” symbol and start typing @AGoldPhoto Pet Photography on Facebook and @agoldphoto on Instagram. You should see us pop up and then you can click on our name to tag us. The name will appear in bold and each platform also sends us a notification, which helps us thank you for sharing of course. The more sharing on social media, the better.
Printing the photos
We do allow for you to download the final edited images and have them printed for personal use. We also offer printing services and the print shop we use is of much higher quality. When you use AGoldPhoto for printing your pet’s photos, you’re also supporting us at the same time.
We also allow you to share the proofs or proof gallery, but please denote that this is not the final photo and it’s just a proof. There is a lot that goes into making each photo a true AGoldPhoto.
Ask for Permission
If you are unsure about where and what you can do with your pet’s AGoldPhoto, please ask. We don’t allow the photo to be used in photo contests, marketing materials or commercial use without our expressed written consent.