Copyright is an important issue. Anyone who takes any photo creates a right. It's called the author's moral right. It does not require any paperwork, it is just the act of creation.
That means that when you take a picture you have a right on it. Now you may publish it on the internet and some people may think publishing it on the internet is like giving it away. Wrong.
It's like someone taking a picture of you and thinking that because your face is on the memory card in their camera they are allowed to publish it. Wrong again.
Photographs belong to the person that takes them. Some people post images on sites like flickr (www.flickr.com) with nice licenses that allow you to use them provided you give them credit, some sell them for a one-time use on sites like www.bigstockphoto.com but that single use only costs one dollar or two, and then you can ask for exclusive rights and that usually costs fifty dollars and upwards.
If you're a photographer it's nice. You can take a picture of Ernesto "Che" Guevara and sell it for a handful of dollars, it looks so cool it ends up on t shirts and becomes an icon photo and you feel like you sold the hen that lays the golden eggs.
If you are a Robert Doisneau and believe what YOU do is worth more and better, you take the pics, keep the rights, print the posters, sell them yourself and enjoy prosperity.
Or you take a picture of a massive tsunami and give away the right to millions... while the Red Cross could have sold these rights and financed help to the victims.
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