Legal

Welcome to the Woodley Photographic Club ("the Club"). As a photographic society, we respect the intellectual property rights of our members, guest contributors, and the wider creative community. This document outlines the legal terms regarding the copyright of photographs and content displayed on our website (https://woodleyphoto.co.uk), submitted to club competitions, or used in club promotions.

1. Ownership of Copyright

Under UK law (Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988), copyright automatically belongs to the author/photographer the moment an image is captured.

Photographer Retains Full Rights: Woodley Photographic Club acknowledges that you retain full ownership and copyright of any photograph you submit to the Club.
No Transfer of Ownership: Submitting your photographs for club galleries, internal competitions, exhibitions, or social media does not transfer ownership or copyright to the Club.

2. Limited License Granted to the Club

By submitting images to the Club (via website upload forms, member portals, email, or physical media) for competitions, exhibitions, or online galleries, you grant Woodley Photographic Club a non-exclusive, royalty-free, worldwide license to:

Display the image on the official Woodley Photographic Club website (https://woodleyphoto.co.uk).
Share the image on official, Club-managed social media channels explicitly to showcase member achievements and promote club events.
Feature the image in internal club communications, digital newsletters, and annual programme guides.
Submit the image to inter-club, regional, or national competitions (such as the Southern Counties Photographic Federation or the Photographic Alliance of Great Britain - PAGB) where you have explicitly entered or agreed to represent the Club.

Federation & External Sublicensing Restrictions

When the Club submits member images to external bodies (e.g., SCPF, PAGB), such submissions are strictly bound by the receiving organization's non-commercial competition rules. The Club will never authorize third parties to commercially sublicense, sell, or exploit member images.

Scope & Limitations of License Revocation

You may request the removal of your images from our public web galleries at any time by contacting the Club Secretary or Webmaster in writing.
Upon receipt of a valid removal request, the Club will remove the specified image from its online website galleries within 14 business days.
Exceptions to Revocation: License revocation operates prospectively for web display. It does not apply retroactively to:
- Permanent historical competition scoring logs or archived league tables.
- Physical printed media, catalogues, or programme guides already published.
- Submissions already transferred to external competition bodies (e.g., SCPF, PAGB) prior to the removal request.

3. Member Warranties & Legal Guarantees

When submitting an image to the Club website or internal competitions, you guarantee and warrant that:

Originality: The image is entirely your own original work, captured by you.
No Infringement: The image does not infringe upon the copyright, trademark, privacy, or intellectual property rights of any third party. AI-generated elements, composites, or stock assets must comply strictly with the rules of the active club competition category.
Model & Property Clearances: Where a living person is clearly identifiable in a portrait style or private setting, you have obtained necessary permissions or hold a lawful basis under UK GDPR to capture and present the image. You accept full legal responsibility for ensuring the image complies with reasonable privacy expectations.

4. Digital Image Safeguards

The Club implements reasonable technical safeguards to deter unauthorized copying:

Display Resolution Caps: Images uploaded to public web galleries are limited to screen-display resolution (e.g., maximum 1920 pixels on the long edge at standard screen resolution). High-resolution source files are strictly reserved for projection/judging engines or physical printing and are never publicly accessible.
Metadata Integrity: The website system retains embedded EXIF data, artist attribution, and copyright tags where technically supported by image processing libraries.
Watermarks: Members are permitted and encouraged to apply a non-intrusive digital copyright watermark (e.g., © [Your Name] 2026) to submitted digital images.

5. Third-Party Misuse & Limitation of Liability

While reasonable technical measures are taken, the internet is an open medium.

The Club is not legally liable for unauthorized downloading, screenshotting, or third-party infringement of images hosted on our platform.
If notified that a member's work hosted on our platform has been stolen or misused by a third party, the Club will provide relevant server log data within our technical possession to assist the author in pursuing a legal claim.

6. Notice and Takedown Procedure (UK Electronic Commerce Regulations)

If you are a copyright holder or authorized agent and believe that content hosted on https://woodleyphoto.co.uk infringes upon your legal copyright, please submit a formal Takedown Request.

Your notice must contain:

Identification of the copyrighted work claimed to have been infringed.
The exact URL link or webpage location of the disputed material on our site.
Your full legal name, email address, and telephone number.
A statement confirming that you have a good faith belief that the disputed use is not authorized by the copyright owner, its agent, or the law.

Send Takedown Notices to: webmaster@woodleyphoto.co.uk

Verified infringing content will be removed within 5 working days of receipt.

Website Copyright