Want to copy a photograph? Photographers own the copyright

Whether they hang on the walls of your home, tucked away in your wallet, or even displayed on your work desk, who really owns those professional photographs?

Laura Fletcher of American Fork found the answer to that question the hard way.

Four years ago Dwane Hudson Photography, formerly located in American Fork, took the wedding photographs of Fletcher's daughter. Since then, she has not been able to get the remaining three enlargements she said she is owed nor can she get prints made from proofs she has because Hudson owns the copyright for those images.

When the Utah Better Business Bureau and the Utah Consumer Protection Agency couldn't help, Fletcher contacted The Deseret Morning News Help Line.

Fletcher is not seeking the enlargements she claims she is owed. "All I really want is to get his permission to make prints from the proofs I already have," she said.

The Help Line found that Hudson is apparently is no longer in the photography business. Utah County Records shows he owns a home in American Fork, although the Help Line could not find a phone number for him.

So what can Fletcher do to make prints of photographs she doesn't legally own?

"She has a right to get what she paid for, and if she signed a contract she is entitled to the promises made in that contract," said Jack Pate, an intellectual property attorney at the law office of Pate Pierce and Baird.

Yet, in Fletcher's situation, he advised against going to court.

"This is not worth a court fight, the cost is like having to go buy a bulldozer to dig up a flower garden," Pate said.

Fletcher has tried to make prints, but has been turned down by photo outlets because of the copyright printed on the back of the proofs.

The outlets don't want to put themselves in a position of being sued by the photographer since copyright law favors the creator of the work.

So, Pate suggested sending Hudson a letter asking him to sign over the copyright, which will allow Fletcher to make prints or to surrender the negatives.

Fletcher did that in a 2006 letter sent to Hudson, in which Fletcher offered to buy for $160. And she wrote him again about a month ago.

"It's been two weeks and I have not heard a thing," Fletcher said in response to the letter sent June 28, 2007.