Your business pays for a product shoot, receives a folder of images and starts posting. Months later, a designer asks whether the photographs may be used in a paid campaign. The owner assumes that payment settled everything. The photographer points to terms that were never discussed.
South African copyright rules contain important distinctions between commissioned work, employment and licences. A useful content agreement should address them before a shoot, particularly when photographs and video will be used across advertising, websites and social platforms.
Start with copyright, not possession of the file
Having a high resolution file does not by itself explain who owns the copyright or what uses are permitted. The Copyright Act provides the legal starting point. Ownership and permission to use a work are related but different questions.
A business may have a broad licence without owning copyright. It may also own copyright while still needing other permissions, such as consent to use an identifiable person’s image or rights to music included in a video.
For practical purposes, ask two questions separately: who owns each component, and what is the business entitled to do with the finished material? A single invoice description saying “content creation” may not answer either question clearly.
Commissioned photographs and films have a specific rule
Section 21 of the Copyright Act text published through WIPO includes a default rule for specified commissioned works, including photographs and cinematograph films, where the commissioning person pays or agrees to pay. The statutory rule is subject to its terms and can be affected by agreement.
It is therefore inaccurate to import a blanket assumption from another country that a freelance photographer always owns every commissioned photograph. It is equally risky to assume that every item supplied by a creative agency falls within the same commissioning rule.
A campaign can include written copy, illustrations, animation, stock elements and other material. Those components need their own assessment. The ownership of a finished video does not automatically resolve every right in its soundtrack or inserted stock footage.
Employment and agency work require another check
Material created by an employee in the course of employment may be governed by the employment provisions of the Act, subject to the applicable exceptions and agreement. A freelancer who sends an invoice is not automatically an employee for this purpose.
Ask who actually created the work and under what arrangement. If an agency used a subcontractor, the agency should be able to explain the rights it can grant. A confident statement that everything belongs to the client is less useful than a documented chain of rights.
For example, a designer may have permission to use a stock image in a campaign but no right to transfer the entire stock account to the client. The client needs a usable licence for the intended campaign, not a promise of ownership that the designer cannot deliver.
Agree the intended uses in plain language
Before production, list where the material will appear. Website use, organic social posts, paid advertising, print, packaging and resale are different commercial uses. Include whether third parties, distributors or franchisees may use the material.
Agree whether cropping, editing, adding text and combining the content with other work are permitted. If a photographer’s terms require approval for particular changes, resolve that before a designer builds the campaign around extensive alterations.
Specify whether the business receives raw files, project files or only finished exports. Access to editable files is a delivery issue as well as a rights issue. Owning copyright does not mean the contract necessarily requires every working file to be supplied without an additional arrangement.
People in the photographs have separate interests
Copyright ownership does not erase privacy, personality or data protection considerations. Obtain appropriate permission for identifiable people where the proposed commercial use requires it. Take particular care with children, patients and sensitive settings.
The Information Regulator’s POPIA guidance is relevant to processing personal information. A person agreeing to appear in an internal staff photograph has not necessarily agreed to every future advertising use.
A practical release should identify the intended uses clearly enough for the person to understand them. Do not bury a broad advertising permission in an unrelated attendance form and assume the issue is resolved. Keep the permission with the content record so later users know its scope.
Social platforms do not supply missing rights
Uploading an image can involve granting the platform permissions under its terms. It does not cure the absence of rights that the uploader needed in the first place. Finding an image publicly visible online is not the same as obtaining permission to reproduce it in a business campaign.
Likewise, tagging the photographer is not a universal substitute for a licence. Attribution can be required or agreed, but credit and permission answer different questions. A repost that looks harmless on a personal account may have a different commercial purpose on a business page.
Keep the original source and licence details for stock content. If a licence is tied to a particular account, project or audience size, ask how future use will be handled. A screenshot of a download is less useful than the terms applicable when it was licensed.
Do not mistake proposed reform for current permission
Copyright reform has been the subject of litigation and parliamentary work. The Constitutional Court’s June 2026 judgment concerning the amendment Bills should not be read as permission to assume that every proposal has commenced as law.
When a supplier relies on a new rule, ask for the enacted provision and commencement position. A business making a significant rights decision should obtain advice on the law in force and the contract it is signing.
Keep a usable content rights folder
Store the quotation, accepted terms, invoice, licences, releases and final files together. Record any restrictions, expiry dates or credits. Give the person managing social media access to those instructions.
The best time to settle rights is before the camera starts. Clear terms allow both the business and creator to price the work properly, use it confidently and avoid an expensive argument when the campaign is already live.
Related reading: Intellectual Property; Does registering your company protect your business name and logo; Hiring a DJ or performer: what your event agreement should cover.
