Creator rights & copyright.

In the UK, across the EU, in the US and in Australia the same starting rule applies: copyright in a photo or video belongs to the person who created it — the one who framed the shot and pressed the button. It does not belong to the subject of the picture, the owner of the place you were standing, or the manufacturer of the camera.

Shooting in your own time with your own gear is a strong indicator that the work is yours. It is not, on its own, the end of the story. Two things can override that starting rule:

• A contract. Some crew and freelance contracts contain clauses assigning "all intellectual property created during the engagement" to the employer or client, whether or not it was created on duty. Whether such a clause is enforceable, and how far it reaches, varies by country.
• Your job description. If making photos or video is part of what you are employed to do, the material may count as created "in the course of employment" even outside working hours (see the next question).

Owning the copyright is only half the question. Even when the footage is legally yours, a confidentiality clause in your contract, the owner's house rules, or the privacy rights of people on board can still stop you from licensing it. YachtStock asks you to confirm all of this when you upload.

It depends on where the "in the course of employment" line falls, and that line is drawn differently in different countries.

• UK, US and Australia share a similar rule: work created by an employee as part of their job belongs to the employer automatically (the UK's Copyright, Designs and Patents Act, the US "work made for hire" doctrine, and Australia's Copyright Act all say this). Work created outside your duties stays yours.
• EU countries differ from each other. In some, such as the Netherlands, the employer owns employee works in a similar way. In others, such as Germany and France, the author always keeps the copyright and the employer only receives rights to use the work. There is no single EU-wide rule.

For most deck, interior and engineering crew, filming is not part of the job, so personal footage is not normally "in the course of employment". That changes if you were asked to shoot for the yacht — its social media, a brochure, a charter listing. Footage made on the captain's instruction is much more likely to belong to the yacht.

Separately from copyright, most crew contracts contain confidentiality or non-disclosure clauses covering the vessel, its owner and its guests. Those clauses can prevent you from publishing or licensing footage you legally own. This is one of the most common reasons crew content cannot be licensed, and it depends entirely on the wording of your contract. We cannot advise on your individual situation.

As a freelancer you are not an employee, so the automatic "employer owns it" rule generally does not apply. In the UK, the US, Australia and most EU countries a contractor keeps the copyright in their work unless they have transferred it in writing. The UK and the US both require a signed written document for a copyright assignment; Australia has the same rule; EU countries generally require a written or otherwise clearly evidenced agreement, with formalities that vary.

In practice, freelance photography and videography contracts very often do contain an assignment or an exclusive licence covering the deliverables. If yours does, you cannot license those deliverables on YachtStock, because someone else now holds the rights.

The grey area is material that is not a deliverable — outtakes, alternative angles, test shots. Some contracts cover "all material captured during the engagement"; others cover only what is delivered. Which applies to you depends on the specific wording of your contract, and where the wording is unclear, courts in different countries may read it differently. Read the clause, and if you are unsure, ask a lawyer before uploading.

When a contract is silent, the default rules of the relevant country apply:

• Employees: the employer owns work created in the course of employment; you own the rest (with the EU variations described above).
• Freelancers: you own what you create unless you signed something transferring it.

Two cautions. First, "silent about media" is not the same as "silent about confidentiality". A contract may say nothing about photography and still contain a broad confidentiality clause that prevents you from publishing anything about the vessel, its owner or its guests. Second, standing orders on board — the captain's or owner's rules about cameras, drones and social media — can still apply even if your written contract does not mention them.

Whether personal footage made on a yacht counts as "in the course of employment" is a genuinely grey area, especially for crew who occasionally shoot for the yacht as well as for themselves. If it matters to you, ask for a written clarification (see section 05) rather than relying on silence.

For copyright, ownership of the camera or drone is not what decides ownership of the footage. Copyright follows the person who made the creative choices, not the equipment. Using the yacht's camera does not, by itself, transfer the copyright to the yacht.

It does matter in three other ways:

• Evidence. Using the yacht's equipment makes it easier to argue you were shooting as part of your job, which brings the "course of employment" rule into play.
• The files themselves. Footage stored on the yacht's camera, memory cards or servers is in the yacht's possession. Copying it off the vessel without permission can breach your contract or the yacht's IT and security policies, regardless of who owns the copyright.
• Drone rules. Drones are registered to an operator, and permissions, insurance and authorisations attach to that operator. Flying the yacht's drone for your own purposes may fall outside its registration or insurance, and flying your own drone from a yacht may need the captain's and, in some places, the port's permission.

This depends on your circumstances and on the aviation rules where you flew. We cannot assess an individual flight.

In the UK, the US, Australia and most EU countries there is no general law against photographing something that is visible from a public place, and photographing a yacht does not infringe copyright in the yacht. Design protection for hulls (where it exists, as in the US and UK) stops people copying the hull, not photographing it.

There are limits to be aware of:

• France recognises a limited right for the owner of a property to object to commercial use of its image, but only where that use causes them an "abnormal disturbance". Such claims rarely succeed, but the principle exists and other countries do not share it.
• Trademarks and logos. A shipyard's or brand's logo in the frame is not, by itself, a problem. Using the image in a way that suggests the brand endorses a product can be. YachtStock's buyer licence forbids implying endorsement, which reduces but does not eliminate this risk.
• People. If anyone on deck is identifiable, section 03 applies.
• Harassment and anti-paparazzi laws. Some jurisdictions (California is a well-known example) penalise intrusive long-lens photography of people in private situations, even from a public position.

Laws differ by country; a marina in one jurisdiction may sit under rules another does not have.

From a copyright point of view, footage you shoot is normally yours (section 01). Whether you may film it at all, and then license it, is a separate question with three parts:

1. Your contract. Crew agreements very commonly restrict photography on board and prohibit publishing anything about the vessel. This is the single most frequent barrier.
2. The owner's permission. You are on private property. The owner, captain or management company can set conditions on filming, and the YachtStock lawful-capture declaration requires that you had permission to film on the vessel.
3. What the footage shows. Exteriors under way are one thing; interiors, guest areas, the owner's belongings, security arrangements and crew or guests are far more sensitive.

If you want to license footage of the yacht you work on, get written permission from the owner or management company that says what you may shoot and that you may license it commercially. Whether a given contract allows this depends on its wording; we cannot advise on individual cases.

A name on its own is not protected by copyright. A small number of yacht names are registered as trademarks, but trademark law is concerned with a name being used as a brand — an incidental appearance in a photograph is generally not an infringement, although jurisdictions differ on where incidental ends.

The more practical risks are elsewhere:

• Confidentiality. If your contract prevents you identifying the vessel, footage showing its name may breach that clause even if the image itself is lawful.
• Owner privacy. In the EU and UK, information that can identify a living person is personal data. Whether a yacht name linked to a publicly known owner counts as personal data is a legally grey area that has not been clearly settled.
• Discretion. Many owners regard their yacht's name and movements as private, and complaints from owners are a common cause of takedown requests.

YachtStock lets you leave the vessel name field empty and does not require you to tag the name. If a name is visible in the frame and you have any confidentiality concern, either do not upload the clip or obtain the owner's permission first.

Only within the aviation rules of the country you are flying in, and those rules are strict, differ from place to place and change frequently. Selling the footage is what usually tips a flight from "recreational" into "commercial", and commercial flights carry more requirements:

• United States: any flight that is not purely recreational — including one made to sell footage — requires an FAA Part 107 remote pilot certificate and drone registration.
• UK: operator and flyer registration with the CAA, with weight-based limits in the Open category and additional qualifications (A2 CofC, GVC) for flights closer to people or in the Specific category.
• EU: a common framework under EASA rules applies in all member states, with Open and Specific categories, registration and remote-pilot competency requirements; individual countries add local no-fly zones and permit schemes.
• Australia: CASA requires a remote pilot licence and operator's certificate for commercial work, with an "excluded category" for very light drones if you notify CASA first.

Everywhere, flying over people, near airports and heliports, above the height limit (typically 120 m / 400 ft) or beyond visual line of sight is restricted, and superyachts frequently have helipads. The YachtStock lawful-capture declaration includes a confirmation that drone footage was flown in compliance with local aviation rules. If you are not certain you were compliant, do not upload the footage.

Yes, many, including some of the most popular superyacht destinations. Examples that are well documented at the time of writing:

• Monaco prohibits drone flights without government authorisation.
• Ports and harbours are frequently inside controlled airspace or subject to port authority bans.
• US national parks ban drone launches and landings.
• Marine protected areas and nature reserves in many countries restrict or ban drones.
• Some countries require an import permit or ban private drones entirely; rules in parts of the Caribbean, the Middle East, North Africa and the Indian Ocean change often.
• Events. Boat shows and regattas usually control all filming on and above the site.

This list is not exhaustive and rules change. Check the national aviation authority's current guidance and ask the harbour master or marina before every flight. Compliance is your responsibility.

Most marinas are private property or port-authority land, so the operator can set rules for anyone on the premises, including rules about photography, commercial filming and drones. Some require a permit for commercial filming, and during boat shows the organiser controls filming on the site.

Photographing from a public quay, breakwater or street is generally lawful in the UK, the US, Australia and most EU countries, subject to the points above about France, privacy and harassment.

Whatever the rules, the people living and working on berthed yachts have a reasonable expectation of privacy on their decks and inside. A clip that is legal to shoot can still generate complaints. Rules differ by marina and by country; ask the marina office if you plan anything beyond casual photography from public areas.

Taking a photograph of a person in a public place is generally lawful in the UK, the US and Australia. Licensing that image commercially is a different matter, and here the law varies:

• EU and UK: a photo or video from which a living person can be identified is personal data under the GDPR. Licensing it commercially requires a lawful basis, and in practice that means the person's consent.
• France, Germany, Italy, Spain and other civil-law countries recognise a right to one's own image. Commercial use without consent is generally unlawful.
• United States: state "right of publicity" laws prohibit using a person's likeness for commercial or advertising purposes without permission. Editorial use is treated differently, but stock licensing for advertising is not editorial.
• UK and Australia have no free-standing image right, but claims can arise under privacy, breach of confidence and misleading-endorsement rules.

Because of this, YachtStock has a firm rule: if an asset contains an identifiable person, a signed model release for that person must be uploaded before the asset can go live. "Identifiable" is broader than a clear face — a distinctive tattoo, a name on a uniform, or context that makes someone recognisable to people who know them can be enough. If you cannot obtain a release, crop or blur the person, or choose a different clip.

A model release is a signed document in which a person gives permission for their likeness to be used, typically for commercial purposes, and sets out what that permission covers. It is standard practice across the stock-media industry and is how buyers get comfort that the person in the picture has agreed to appear in an advert.

On YachtStock you need one whenever an identifiable person appears in a photo or clip, uploaded as a signed PDF with the asset. Practical points that apply in every jurisdiction:

• A release must be signed by the person themselves, or by a parent or legal guardian for a minor.
• It should be in a language the person understands and should describe the use plainly.
• Keep a copy with the person's contact details in case a buyer or YachtStock needs to verify it.

What a release cannot do is override other obligations: it does not release you from a confidentiality clause, and it does not make an intrusive recording lawful. In the EU and UK, where a release relies on consent under data protection law, that consent can in principle be withdrawn later; how that interacts with licences already sold is a legally unsettled area. If you need a release template you can rely on, have a lawyer review it for the countries you work in.

The law does not have a "background" exemption. The test is whether the person is identifiable, not how prominent they are. A crew member in uniform on their own yacht may be perfectly recognisable to colleagues, employers and family even if they are small in the frame.

Practical approaches that work everywhere:

• Ask your crewmates to sign a release — usually the easiest option when you are on board together.
• Shoot when decks are clear.
• Crop or blur so that no individual can be identified.

Two things to remember: a crewmate's consent is theirs to give, not yours, and they may have their own contractual restrictions on appearing in published material about the vessel. If figures are genuinely unidentifiable — distant silhouettes with no distinguishing features — a release is not required, but whether someone is identifiable is a question of fact that can be judged differently after the event.

We strongly recommend that you do not, and YachtStock will not publish footage of identifiable guests without a signed release from each of them.

Guests on a private or charter yacht have one of the highest expectations of privacy the law recognises: they are in a private place, they are usually protected by confidentiality terms in both the crew's contracts and the charter agreement, and in the EU and UK any footage identifying them is personal data. Filming guests without explicit written consent risks a breach-of-contract claim from the yacht or owner, a privacy or image-rights claim from the guest, and, depending on the country, a data protection complaint.

Even with a guest's written consent and a model release, you would still need the owner's or management company's permission to film on board and to license the result. This is a case where the safest answer is also the simplest: unless every one of those permissions is in writing, leave guests out of the frame.

Every upload asks you to tick this statement:

"I confirm this media was captured lawfully from a public location or with appropriate permission, and I hold the rights to license it commercially."

Ticking it is a contractual warranty under the Contributor Agreement, not a formality. You are confirming three things:

• Lawful capture: the material was shot from a public place, from a vessel you had permission to film on, or with the express permission of the owner or operator, and any drone flight complied with local aviation rules.
• Rights: you own the copyright or hold a written licence that allows commercial sub-licensing, and no employer, owner, guest or agency holds rights that would prevent licensing.
• No restrictions: the material is not subject to a confidentiality agreement, crew-contract restriction, embargo or exclusive licence elsewhere.

The confirmation is recorded against the asset with a timestamp. If it turns out to be untrue, the Contributor Agreement makes you responsible for the resulting claims and costs (see the next question). If you cannot honestly tick it, do not upload the file.

Here is the process as it actually works on YachtStock:

1. A complaint arrives through the report button on the asset page or as a formal notice. The asset is typically paused or removed while it is reviewed, and you are notified by email and asked for your account of events and any permissions, releases or contracts you hold.
2. If the complaint is upheld, the asset is removed permanently. Buyers who already licensed it keep their licence where that is legally possible, or receive platform credit where it is not.
3. Money: earnings become payable 60 days after each sale, and 10% of every earning is held in a permanent claims reserve on your account. Under the Contributor Agreement, the platform may apply that reserve and any unpaid earnings against refunds, credits and costs caused by a claim about your content, and may seek repayment of amounts already paid out.

Beyond the platform, the person making the complaint may pursue you directly, and what they can claim depends on the laws of the countries involved. The Contributor Agreement's indemnity means you, not YachtStock or the buyer, carry legal responsibility for content that turns out to infringe someone's rights. If you receive a formal claim, seek legal advice promptly.

There are two different questions hidden in this one.

Can the owner take the copyright? If the footage is yours, no: copyright does not move to someone else because they ask for it. In the UK, the US and Australia a transfer needs a signed written assignment, and EU countries require a clear agreement with their own formalities. An owner cannot simply "claim" ownership of a clip you created outside your duties.

Can the owner get the footage taken down? Quite possibly, yes — on grounds that have nothing to do with copyright. An owner may argue that you were filming as part of your job (so the yacht owns it), that publishing it breaches your confidentiality clause, that guests or crew are identifiable, that a French-style property-image right applies, or that a trademark is being misused. YachtStock will remove or pause an asset while a credible complaint is assessed, and removal is not a ruling on who owns the copyright.

Be realistic: even when you are confident the copyright is yours, the platform may remove content to limit legal risk, and you may then need to resolve the underlying dispute with the owner yourself. Whether you would succeed depends on your contract and on the law of the countries involved.

Then do not upload it yet. Uncertainty at the point of upload tends to become a dispute later, when the stakes are higher.

Things you can do first:

• Re-read your contract for intellectual-property, confidentiality and social-media clauses.
• Ask the owner, captain or management company for written permission that names what you may shoot and confirms you may license it commercially.
• Obtain model releases for anyone identifiable.
• Check the drone rules for the place and date of the flight.
• Ask a lawyer who deals with maritime employment or intellectual property. Many crew associations can point you to one.

YachtStock support can explain how the platform's rules work, but cannot tell you whether a specific file is safe to upload — that is legal advice, and it depends on facts we do not have.

Only if you had the right to license it then and still do now. Leaving a job does not usually change who owns the footage, and it does not usually end your confidentiality obligations — non-disclosure clauses in crew contracts commonly survive the end of employment, sometimes indefinitely.

Work through the same questions for each previous job:

• Were you an employee or a freelancer, and did the contract assign intellectual property?
• Does the contract contain confidentiality restrictions, and do they survive termination?
• What does the footage show — exteriors at sea, or interiors, guests, the owner, the vessel's name?
• Which country's law governed that contract?

If the contract was silent and the footage was personal, the default rules may favour you; if it was made for the yacht or under a broad confidentiality clause, it is likely off-limits. This depends entirely on the wording of each contract, and we cannot advise on your individual situation.

If you intend to shoot and license your own footage, having the position written down before you sign is the single most useful thing you can do. Verbal understandings with a captain are hard to prove and do not survive a change of command.

A clause worth discussing would typically cover:

• what you may photograph or film (exteriors only, at sea only, no guests, no interiors);
• who owns what you create in your own time, and what the yacht may use it for;
• whether you may publish or license it, and whether the vessel's name may appear;
• whether the yacht wants to approve material before it is published.

The Maritime Labour Convention requires seafarers to have a written employment agreement but does not standardise intellectual-property terms, so practice varies widely between management companies. A maritime employment lawyer, or a crew association or union, can help you judge what is reasonable to ask for. This is general information, not advice on your contract.

Do not ignore it, and do not escalate. A calm, prompt response resolves most requests.

1. Ask for specifics if the request is vague: which asset, what right they say is affected, and on what basis.
2. Tell YachtStock. If the request concerns content on the platform, forward it to support so the asset can be paused while it is reviewed. The platform will contact you for your account and any permissions, releases or contracts you hold.
3. Gather your records: the contract in force at the time, written permissions, model releases, and the original files with their timestamps.
4. Take formal notices seriously. A letter from a lawyer, or a formal copyright notice such as a US DMCA notice, has legal consequences. Some jurisdictions provide a counter-notice procedure, but a counter-notice is itself a legal statement made under penalty — get advice before sending one.

Removing content while a dispute is examined is not an admission that you were wrong; it limits the damage on both sides while the facts are established.

We want to be straightforward about this, because it is where reassurance would be misleading.

What the platform does: reviews every upload before it goes live; requires the lawful-capture declaration and model releases; operates a complaints process and pauses or removes content while a claim is assessed; keeps records of your declarations, releases and permissions; and shares the evidence you provide when a complaint is handled.

What the platform does not do: YachtStock is not your lawyer and does not provide legal representation or defence. Under the Contributor Agreement, you are legally responsible for your content and you indemnify the platform and its buyers against claims arising from it. The platform may apply your claims reserve and unpaid earnings to the costs of a claim, and may seek repayment of amounts already paid.

Your real protection comes from what you do before uploading: clear contract terms, written permissions, model releases, compliant drone flights and good records. Professional media-liability insurance exists in some markets and may be worth discussing with a broker if you license footage regularly. Whether any of these protections applies in a given case depends on the laws of the countries involved.