WHY WE COPYRIGHT OUR PORTRAITS

In 1976 the Federal Government passed a law making it illegal to copy materials protected by a copyright.  These materials included items such as sheet music, books and photographs.

The portraits you have entrusted us to create for you are made by the finest craftsmen in the industry.  The very high level of quality found in each portrait cannot be duplicated or copied without suffering a severe reduction in sharpness, color and clarity.

Since such a loss of image quality would reflect poorly on the reputation of our work, Giles Photography has reserved the copyright of each portrait we create.  It is illegal to have copies made directly from the photographs, including, but not limited to: photographic copies, prints from copy machines, scanning into your computer, placing on a website, making invitations, having a bakery use a frosting image on a cake, etc.  In some rare cases, we will give written permission to copy, but this might require an added fee.  Call us if you have questions.  We do retain all images that you order from on file for a minimum of 10 years. Additional photographs can be made for by us that meet our exact standards.

We sincerely appreciate your understanding and cooperation in helping us maintain the very highest levels of quality and integrity you have come to expect from Giles Photography.

Please be aware that there are very substantial penalties for making illegal copies that can exceed $100,00 per occurrence.

Additional Information on copyright:

Most people do not understand copyright.  The following information is provided as a service to our customers:

The copyright law protects the work of authors, artists, and other creative talents.  The vast majority of these people are self-employed.  In order to protect their income, the law provides harsh penalties for illegal copying (known as infringement of copyright). The penalties can run from $10,000 to $100,000 or more per illegal copy!

The instant a professional photographer takes a photograph, it is copyrighted.  The law provides that the author of the work (in this case the photographer) is the copyright owner, and he/she owns all right to the use of that image, even if they were paid to create the image.  The artist, photographer, owns the copyright on all images he/she has created until 25 years after their death.

And in addition to all the legal stuff above, it's just simply stealing from me.  I work to make a living.  Illegal copying just makes it that much harder and besides, it's just not nice.