Question about image ownership

[Mollisol]

Hi,

This isn't an urgent question - I'm not in a situation where the answer is important - but I am curious:

Suppose you commission an image from someone on Iwaku. Who owns the image? Or, who determines how the image can be used, where you can post it, if you're allowed to edit it, etc? The artist who made it, or the party who paid for it?

 

[Nav]

I think that depends on the artist's terms. Some artists will allow you to do whatever you please with it, so long as you don't remove their signature and don't try and pass it off as your own work. Others have stricter rules when it comes to commissions, ie: where it can be used, how it can be used, etc. Ultimately, I'd suggest chatting with the artist you're wanting to commission before actually paying for them to do art work and make sure you're both on agreement on the rights to the image.

 

[Mollisol]

I think that depends on the artist's terms. Some artists will allow you to do whatever you please with it, so long as you don't remove their signature and don't try and pass it off as your own work. Others have stricter rules when it comes to commissions, ie: where it can be used, how it can be used, etc. Ultimately, I'd suggest chatting with the artist you're wanting to commission before actually paying for them to do art work and make sure you're both on agreement on the rights to the image.

That makes sense! Thank you for your quick reply.

 

[Elle Joyner]

My thoughts are it'll also depends on whether or not you paid for the commission or it was free. Most artists, as far as I know will have rules about not removing/cropping signatures and stuff, but if you paid for it, you're probably free to use it wherever.

 

[Nemopedia]

So, for the question of ownership and what you can, and cannot, do to an image you commisioned you need to recognise two terms. Creator and copyright holder.

Creator is, as obvious from the word, the one who creates the piece. Copyright holder is where the rights of the art is owned. Since most of the artists here on Iwaku are working based on commissions and thus on a freelance basis, rather than for an employer, the art creation and ownership of copyrights usually both belong to the artist. They can, however, transfer the copyrights over to you, the commissioner, depending on the agreements you have made. It is like how Nav and Elle explained earlier. Otherwise your ownership over the paid product is quite limited.

You can read more about this subject here.

Generally, if you want to know who 'owns' the art, good questions are:
- Who created the piece?
- Was it made independently, or commissioned?
- If commissioned, what was the context of employment? For hire, or in longterm employment (a.k.a: is there a boss-employee relationship?)

I know Elle and Nav gave you the answer you desired. I'm just going a little more in depth with them, should you want to know. c: