Copyright is a topic near and dear to my heart. I have a photo club that I lead in my area with 520 members. I frequently get asked about copyright issues and I hear a lot of Internet BS getting tossed around as gospel. The first rule of copyright is that it begins with the shutter click. The second rule is that copyright is only enforceable if the photo has been registered with the U.S. Copyright Office. The copyright attaches to the original author of the work unless the work is created under contract to another person where the copyright is expressly transferred to the second party. The 3rd rule of copyright is that it is only enforceable in Federal Court. It is the only expressed right in the unamended Constitution (Article 1, Section 8, Clause 8 ), ahead of free speech or the right to bear arms or any of the rest of the amendments. An unregistered work that is infringed upon must be registered with the Copyright Office prior to any lawsuit being filed. If an unregistered infringement occurs, statutory awards may not be available. Infringements of registered works are subject to up to $150,000 in penalties plus court costs and attorney fees. I always recommend my photographers register their works at least once a year as a collection. Registration fees are cheap enough, $55 standard fee, $35 for a single work. I've registered 100,000 photos in my life. Doesn't matter if the photos are crap or not. Registered is registered and it protects your butt from all sorts of industry douchebaggery. Pay $35 and electronically register you photo. Now.
I also warn my students to NEVER post anything on social media unless they have READ the TOS for that site. If you post to FaceBook, it's theirs. Period. Their TOS gives them a license to use anything you post for their own use, including their affiliates. Most of the other social media places have the same or similar TOS. So, register your work and be extremely careful about who and how you grant publication rights to your work. If you are going to write a book and publish it, get an attorney first. Secure your rights! I've had more than one person in my group that has taken a very nice photo, posted it on FB, then seen their work on a billboard or on an airport wall and they didn't get anything from the Court for damages because the work wasn't registered prior to the infringement. A good question to ask a potential copyright attorney is, "Where will you file my claim if someone steals my work?" If the answer is anything other than Federal Court, walk away from them fast. They don't know anything about copyright law and you are being hustled. That kind of attorney will bleed you dry pursuing all sorts of local Court Tort complaints and get you nothing in the end. No to small claims court! No to District Court! No to out-of-court settlements or deals. Don't settle for tens of thousands when you are entitled to potentially hundreds of thousands of dollars in statutory and compensatory damages.