Licensing interior photographs commissioned in Poland

You are buying a licence, not the copyright

When you commission a shoot, you pay for two things: my work and the right to use the photographs. The files are only the carrier. Handing them over does not transfer the copyright; Polish law is explicit on that point.

The copyright stays with me and you receive a licence: permission to use the photographs within an agreed scope. I always put that scope in writing, and the quote shows it as separate lines: type of licence, term, territory, usage and third parties.

Non-exclusive or exclusive

A non-exclusive licence is the standard. You may use the photographs within the agreed scope, and I keep the right to license them to others as well and to show them in my portfolio. We settle who else receives a licence before the shoot. Non-exclusive does not mean open or free: only those named in the licence may use the images.

An exclusive licence means that, within the agreed scope, period and territory, nobody but you receives a licence. Polish law requires it to be in writing, on pain of invalidity. Exclusivity can be partial: until the property opens, for a single channel, or for one market. It costs more because it limits what I can do with the photographs, so it is worth choosing only when you need it.

Even under an exclusive licence I reserve the right to show the photographs in my portfolio. If the property has not opened yet, or the interior is private, we agree a date before which I show nothing, or that I never show it.

Usage: name every use

Polish law requires a licence to name the fields of exploitation, that is, the ways in which the photographs may be used. What is not named is not covered, and a phrase such as “all uses” does not work. So I list them, usually like this:

• your own website, newsletter and social media;
• booking platforms and travel agencies on which the property has a listing;
• press, press releases and competitions;
• print: brochures, menus, catalogues and material on the property;
• paid advertising: social ads, search, print press or outdoor.

Paid advertising is a separate field. If a campaign is planned, tell me at the start, because its scope affects the licence.

Some things stay outside the licence unless we agree otherwise: selling the photographs or products made with them, edits beyond cropping, resizing, format conversion and technical correction, and training AI systems on the photographs.

Term and territory

A licence runs for an agreed period or without a time limit. I write the term and the territory into the agreement, because when it is silent the law assumes five years and the country where the licensee has its seat or residence. After the term, the right to use the photographs expires.

On the internet, borders are notional, so I state the territory outright instead of inferring it from your seat. For print and campaigns it follows where the material will actually go.

“Without a time limit” needs one caution. In Polish law it means an indefinite term, which the author may, as a rule, terminate with notice unless the agreement says otherwise. If you plan to use the photographs for many years, we agree the wording so that you have certainty.

Third parties: who else may publish the photographs

A licence is personal. Under Polish law you cannot authorise anyone else to use the photographs unless the agreement allows it. Yet an interior is rarely used by one party alone: the architect and the designer, a furniture or lighting brand, the contractor, a publisher, a PR agency, a magazine.

Each of them receives a licence of their own from me, with its own scope. We usually agree this before the shoot, so that everyone knows where they stand from the start. Please do not send full-resolution files to a brand, a contractor or an agency before that is settled.

If you operate through several companies, such as a group, a management company and the company that owns the property, name the ones that will use the photographs. A licence granted to one company does not pass automatically to its affiliates.

Booking platforms are a case of their own. Their terms usually reserve rights to reuse the photographs of a property, so your licence has to allow you to pass the right to present your listing on to the platform. I write that in. Terms differ from one platform to another, so check the current ones before you publish.

Consent of the designer and the owner

An interior is someone’s work before it is my photograph. A designed interior, and sometimes the architecture itself, can be a protected work, so its author may have a say in publication. In the licence you confirm that you have the right to let me photograph the property and publish the images, including the consent of the interior designer or architect and of the building’s owner where that is not you.

The same goes for what appears in the frame: artworks, trademarks, equipment, and people. Someone who is clearly recognisable needs to consent to the publication of their image, and in the EU an identifiable image is also personal data. Collecting these consents is up to you, ideally in writing and before the shoot. A short email to the designer when you book the date is usually enough to start.

Credit

Under Polish law an author’s right to be credited cannot be waived, so I credit every published photograph, usually “Photo: Piotr Bugaj” and, where a designer is involved, “Design: studio name, Photo: Piotr Bugaj”. Where a platform has no field for the author, such as booking sites, maps or delivery apps, we agree in writing that no credit is needed.

If your company is based elsewhere in the EU

• Language and law. The licence agreement can be drawn up in English. It is governed by Polish law, which is why I explain its main rules here.
• Territory. Ask for the EU or worldwide rather than leaving it to the default. For a group with several markets, worldwide is often simpler.
• The contracting company. Tell me which company orders the shoot and which others will use the photographs, so that each is named.
• Brand guidelines. Send them before the shoot. They show me the look you expect, and they tell us both whether a colour treatment, text overlays or composites go beyond a standard edit.

Three typical needs

A hotel website and booking platforms in several markets

A non-exclusive licence for the website, social media and booking platforms is usually enough, with a territory that matches where the guests come from. The companies that use the photographs are named.

A guest house listed on a marketplace

A non-exclusive licence for the website, social media and the listing, usually for a long term. If the property is about to open, we can agree an embargo or short exclusivity until opening day, after which the licence becomes non-exclusive.

A design studio: portfolio and press

A non-exclusive licence covers the studio’s portfolio, media and competitions. Suppliers and contractors receive licences of their own, agreed before the shoot and credited to the studio. If the first publication is meant to appear in a particular magazine, we agree temporary exclusivity until then.

This is not legal advice. I describe how I work and explain it as plainly as I can. Before you sign, you may want a lawyer to read the agreement, especially for an exclusive licence, a long term or a campaign. If you are planning the shoot itself, how to brief a hotel or serviced-apartment photographer lists what to prepare.