Glance at the summary firstThe summary from the end of the lesson, as a road map before you start reading.
In Türkiye, a photo is a work protected under Law No. 5846 on Intellectual and Artistic Works when it carries its author's individuality; protection arises with the shot and gives the photographer economic rights such as reproduction, distribution, adaptation and communication to the public, and moral rights such as name credit and the work not being distorted. A license grants a usage permission while leaving the rights with the author, while a transfer of rights passes them to someone else; both should be set in writing. In an infringement, dated evidence is gathered first and the use is tracked with a reverse image search, and in portraits the copyright and the person's rights over their own image are kept separate; what is described points the way, and in a concrete situation a lawyer is consulted.
Learning goal
You will be able to explain in broad outline under what conditions a photo counts as a protected work, what rights it gives the photographer, and how these rights can be granted to others. You will learn how the law governing intellectual and artistic works in Türkiye, Law No. 5846 on Intellectual and Artistic Works (FSEK), treats the photo as a work carrying its author's individuality, the difference between economic rights and moral rights, and how a license differs from a transfer of rights. When you notice your photo has been used without permission, you will trace it with a reverse image search, gather dated evidence, and take the first steps calmly and with documentation. You will see that in a portrait, the photo's copyright and the rights of the person photographed over their own image are separate things. You will keep in mind that what is described doesn't replace the opinion a lawyer will give by looking at your case, and that in a concrete situation you need to consult an expert.
The question
One evening, scrolling on their phone, your friend comes across a familiar frame: one of the photos they took on the shore on Sunday morning, which they thought they hadn't shown anyone. They had uploaded it only once, to the club's page. Now the same photo sits in the advertisement of a newly opened café, with their name removed and its colors changed.
Angry, they think about what they can do. How will they prove the photo is theirs? Should they write to the café, report it to the platform, go straight to a lawyer? What happens if my photo is stolen? And from now on, what should they watch for when sharing their photos?
Context
While working with the information embedded in files, you added to every frame a line carrying your name and terms of use (Lesson 15.5). In the café and bakery jobs, you wrote the limits of the usage permission you gave the client into your quote item by item (Lesson 28.5). In the competition lesson, too, we talked about staying away from terms that leave all rights to the organizer (Lesson 28.11).
The account here only points a direction; it doesn't replace a lawyer's opinion. Laws can change, their interpretation develops through court decisions, and every situation is assessed by its own details. No article numbers or duration calculations are given here; in a concrete infringement or a contract, you need to consult a lawyer working in the field of intellectual property rights.
Simple explanation
When is a photo protected, and what rights does it give the photographer?
A work, in the law's sense, is an intellectual and artistic product carrying its author's individuality, that is, their personal characteristics and creative choices. The law in Türkiye counts photographic works among works of fine art. A photo being protected as a work depends on it reflecting the photographer's choices such as framing, light, moment and gaze. Protection arises with the taking of the photo; registering it somewhere or putting a mark on it isn't required for protection, but it makes proving ownership easier. That is why original raw files, metadata carrying the shooting date and regular backups are the photographer's strongest evidence in a dispute. Not every photo may be protected to the same degree; whether an ordinary image that records a scene without making any choice counts as a work is assessed by looking at the concrete situation.
Economic rights are the rights that let the author benefit economically from their work: reproducing the work, distributing it, adapting it, that is, producing a new work by changing it, and communicating it to the public through means such as the internet. Using each of these rights, or letting someone else use them, belongs to the author. Economic rights are protected for a certain period; how this period is calculated should be asked of a lawyer.
Moral rights are the rights that protect the personal bond between the author and their work: deciding when and how the work will be presented to the public, asking for their name to be credited on the work, and objecting to the work being changed without permission in a way that distorts it. The café removing your friend's name from the photo and changing its colors may concern these moral rights as well as the economic rights.
How are rights granted?
A license is the author allowing someone else to use their work under certain conditions, for example in a certain medium, for a certain period and region; the rights stay with the author. An exclusive license, granted to a single person and forbidding the same permission being given to others, differs from a non-exclusive license, which can be given to many people at once. A transfer of rights, on the other hand, is the rights passing from the author to someone else, and has a much heavier consequence: the photographer may no longer be able to use a transferred right themselves. When a client asks for "all rights," you need to discuss what this covers and how it will change the price; most clients' need is actually a license given for a particular use. In Türkiye, as in many countries, a written contract is required for the transfer of economic rights and for licenses.
Some photographers share their photos with ready-made licenses that anyone can use under certain conditions. The best known of these are the licenses of the organization called Creative Commons: conditions such as crediting the name, non-commercial use, not changing the work or sharing it under the same license are combined in different ways. Before sharing a photo under such a license, you need to understand well which uses are permanently allowed. The same care applies in reverse: a photographer who wants to use someone else's photo shouldn't count it being on the internet as permission, should read the license terms and, if needed, get written permission from its owner.
In portraits there is a separate layer. The photo's copyright belongs to the photographer; but the person visible in the photo has separate rights over their own image, arising from personality rights. That is why owning the copyright doesn't give the right to use a person's portrait in an advertisement without their permission. This permission is asked with the same care even if the person in the portrait differs in skin tone, age or work; this subject will be taken up in detail in the next lesson.
Visual evidence
Your friend first calms down and gathers evidence. They take a screenshot of the page with the advertisement so that the date and address are visible, and save the link. Then they put the photo's raw file, the metadata showing the shooting date and the first post on the club's page into a folder. With a reverse image search, that is, the method of uploading an image to a search engine and finding similar ones on the internet, they see that the photo has been used on two other pages as well.
They write the café a polite but clear message: they state that the photo belongs to them, that it was used without permission and with their name removed, and that they want it either taken down or used with their name in return for a license fee. When the café doesn't answer for a few days, they consult a friend who is a lawyer and proceed on their advice. The lawyer tells them that the platforms where the photo is published also often offer a route for reporting infringement, but that the consequences of this route, and its misuse, can create separate liabilities. For the other two pages they apply the same steps one by one and write the result of each in their table.
From now on they add copyright information to the file of every photo they share, put only small versions on the internet, and always set the terms in writing when licensing a photo.
Common mistakes
Common mistakeReacting angrily to the infringement without gathering evidence.
If the page is deleted, the evidence is lost. The fix: first save a dated screenshot, the link and your own original file.
Common mistakeThinking a license and a transfer of rights are the same.
All rights can be given away in an agreement without realizing it. The fix: set every usage permission in writing, with its terms.
Common mistakeThinking that owning the copyright gives the right to use the person in a portrait in an advertisement.
The person's rights over their own image are separate. The fix: get the person's written permission for commercial use.
Summary
In Türkiye, a photo is a work protected under Law No. 5846 on Intellectual and Artistic Works when it carries its author's individuality; protection arises with the shot and gives the photographer economic rights such as reproduction, distribution, adaptation and communication to the public, and moral rights such as name credit and the work not being distorted. A license grants a usage permission while leaving the rights with the author, while a transfer of rights passes them to someone else; both should be set in writing. In an infringement, dated evidence is gathered first and the use is tracked with a reverse image search, and in portraits the copyright and the person's rights over their own image are kept separate; what is described points the way, and in a concrete situation a lawyer is consulted.
Mini assignment
In this assignment you will build a system to protect the rights to your own photos.
- Add copyright information stating your name and terms of use to the files of the five photos you share most.
- Do a reverse image search for these five photos; write every use you find into a table with date, link and screenshot.
- Imagine you are licensing one of your photos to an imaginary café, and prepare a short draft text stating the license's medium, period, region, whether it is exclusive and how your name will be credited.
- Write what you will need, in terms of both copyright and the person's permission, for the commercial use of a photo with people in it. Note three questions you would ask a lawyer in case of an infringement.
Check yourself
- Can you explain the difference between economic rights and moral rights?
- Can you tell a license from a transfer of rights?
- Do you know which evidence you will gather first in an infringement?
Glossary
| Term | Short definition |
|---|---|
| Work | An intellectual and artistic product carrying its author's individuality and protected by law. |
| Economic rights | The author's rights to benefit economically, such as reproducing, distributing, adapting and communicating the work to the public. |
| Moral rights | The rights to decide on presenting the work to the public, to name credit and to the work not being distorted. |
| License | Permission to use the work under certain conditions, leaving the rights with the author. |
| Reverse image search | The method of uploading an image to a search engine to find similar ones on the internet. |
Mini quiz
1. What is needed for a photo to be protected as a work in Türkiye?
- A) Registering it with an institution
- B) It carrying its author's individuality
- C) It winning a prize in a competition
- D) It being printed large
2. Which rights may removing the photographer's name from a photo concern?
- A) Only tax obligations
- B) No rights
- C) Moral rights such as asking for name credit
- D) Only insurance
3. What is the difference between a license and a transfer of rights?
- A) In a license the rights stay with the author, in a transfer they pass to someone else
- B) There is no difference
- C) A license is always without time limit
- D) A transfer is always free
4. When an unauthorized use is noticed, what should the first step be?
- A) Immediately writing an angry comment
- B) Doing nothing
- C) Deleting the photo from your own page
- D) Gathering evidence with a dated screenshot, the link and the original file
Answers
- B — Protection depends on the photo reflecting the photographer's creative choices; registration isn't required.
- C — Asking for name credit is one of the moral rights; removing it may concern this right.
- A — A license is a usage permission; a transfer changes who owns the rights.
- D — If evidence is gathered before it is lost, every later step, together with a lawyer, rests on solid ground.
Summary card
- A photo is a work when it carries your choices; protection arises with the shot.
- Economic rights protect earnings, moral rights protect your name and work.
- A license grants permission, a transfer passes the right to someone else; write both down.
- In an infringement, evidence first, then calm communication, a lawyer if needed.
- The copyright is the photographer's, the image is the person's; get permission for commercial use.
Bridge to the next lesson
On the day the shore photo was used in the café's advertisement, something else nags at your friend: if the same café wanted to use the photo of the bakery master in their portfolio too, would the master's permission be needed even though the copyright is theirs? And what about the photo of a stranger whose face is recognizable, taken on the street, or frames taken inside a building? Do you need permission to photograph someone? The next lesson takes up why a written release form is essential, especially in commercial use.