Photos in a two-home family: who owns what

01 What is copyright and how does it affect image licensing?

A photograph of your child on a beach belongs to the person who pressed the button, not to the family album. Copyright starts at the moment of creation, and the photographer holds it unless it was signed away in writing. So a household that takes, borrows and keeps pictures across two homes needs to know which images it can use, which it can only look at, and which come with a date attached.

Copyright is the right to copy, publish and adapt a picture. In the UK it arises automatically when a photograph is taken and it lasts for the life of the photographer plus seventy years. The photographer may be a professional, a friend at a birthday party, or a grandparent with a phone. The person who owns the phone does not own the picture. The person who appears in the picture does not own it either.

A licence is permission to do one or more of those acts, on stated terms. It is not a transfer of ownership. When a school, a small business or a family newsletter wants to use a photograph it did not take, it needs a licence, and the licence will say what is allowed. A useful plain-English starting point for the vocabulary involved is this guide to copyright and image licensing, which sets out the terms an image buyer in the UK is likely to meet.

For a household, the practical rule is simple. Keep the receipt, the email or the screenshot that shows what was agreed. If nobody agreed anything, assume the photographer still holds everything.

02 What is the difference between rights-managed and royalty-free image licences?

Rights-managed means the licence is negotiated for a particular use. The price depends on how the picture will be used, where, for how long, and whether the use is exclusive. A rights-managed licence for a picture on the cover of a local magazine is not the same licence as one for a picture inside a school newsletter. Each use is agreed separately, and the photographer can charge again for a different use.

Royalty-free means the buyer pays once for a defined set of uses and can then use the picture repeatedly within those terms. It is usually cheaper and simpler, but it is rarely exclusive. The same photograph may appear in many other places at the same time. For a family, that matters if the picture is going on a noticeboard, a fundraising page or a printed calendar where a duplicate would look odd.

Neither model is better. They answer different questions. Rights-managed suits a single, specific, high-visibility use. Royalty-free suits repeated, low-key use where exclusivity is not needed.

03 How do territory and duration affect an image licence?

Territory is where the picture may be shown. A licence might cover the United Kingdom only, or the United Kingdom and Ireland, or worldwide. A photograph licensed for a parish magazine in Devon is not licensed for a website read in Australia. If a family blog is public, the territory is effectively everywhere, and the licence should say so.

Duration is how long the permission lasts. It might be one year, five years, or perpetual. A licence that expires does not quietly renew. When it ends, the picture should come down or a new licence should be agreed. This is the point families miss most often, because a picture that was fine two summers ago may no longer be covered today.

Territory and duration are usually priced together. A wider territory and a longer term cost more, because the photographer is giving up more control for longer. If a licence does not mention either, ask before you use the picture, not after.

04 Which pictures can a family actually keep and reuse?

There are four common situations in a household that runs across two homes.

Pictures you took yourself. You hold the copyright. You can print them, post them and pass them on. If you took a picture of someone else's child, you still hold the copyright, but you should not publish it without the parent's agreement.

Pictures taken by a professional. The photographer holds the copyright unless the contract says otherwise. A wedding or portrait contract often includes a personal-use licence, which covers printing and sharing with family, but not advertising or resale. Read that clause before uploading anything to a public page.

Pictures borrowed from a stock library. These come with the licence terms described above. Keep the licence document with the file, in the same folder. A picture with no paperwork is a picture you cannot safely use.

Pictures found online. Saving an image from a search result does not grant any permission. This is the most common mistake, and it is the one that causes the most trouble.

05 What should a household write down, and where?

A single shared note is enough. For each picture that did not come from your own camera, record four things: who took it, what the licence allows, the territory, and the end date. Add the name of the person who agreed it and the date of the agreement.

Keep this note where both homes can reach it. A shared folder, a cloud document or a page in the household file all work. The point is that the information survives a change of phone, a change of address or a change of mind.

When a licence has an end date, put that date in a calendar with a reminder a month before. Removing a picture is easy. Explaining why it is still online after the permission ran out is harder.

06 A dated permission is not the same thing as a nice picture

A photograph can be lovely and still be unusable. The two qualities are separate. A favourite picture of a grandparent may be perfect for a frame on a shelf and entirely unsuitable for a public fundraising page, because nobody knows who took it or what was agreed.

Sort your pictures into three piles. The ones you took, which you can use freely. The ones you have a written licence for, which you can use within its terms. And the ones you cannot account for, which stay private. Most family collections are mostly the third pile, and that is normal. It is not a problem until something is published.

For the middle pile, the terms matter more than the picture. A dated permission tells you what you may do, where, and until when. A nice picture tells you nothing at all. When the two disagree, the permission wins.

If a picture is going somewhere public, and you cannot say who owns it, do not use it. Take a new one instead. That is the simplest rule in the house, and it is the one that keeps everyone out of difficulty.