“Your houseboat, my sculpture” by Rich Stim discusses the rights of a photographer to photograph and use images of another’s property. The article answers a reader who wrote in expressing desire to take legal action against a photographer who published an image of the reader’s houseboat.
The general rule regarding what you can and can not shoot in the United States is that if you can see it from public property, you can shoot it. Photographing a building from the sidewalk? Go ahead. Taking a picture of a person walking down the street? No problem. Using a telephoto lens to shoot someone in their living room through an open window? No you may not.
Back to the houseboat — the reader is upset that a photographer published an image of his houseboat without permission and wishes to take legal action.
I know the photographer and told her verbally that I did not want a photo of my boat used commercially or in a book. She used it anyway. Is there any way to take legal action against her? I am very upset! I consider my boat to be a sculpture.
According to Mr. Stim however, the law is on the side of the photographer. Photographing architecture that can be seen in public does not violate copyright.
Link via “Property Releases Revisited” by Photo Attorney. Photo by Jan Tik.