Who Owns the Photos You Paid For? Photo Usage Rights in Spain

Let me set the scene. You've hired a photographer to create images of your resort or boutique hotel. The work is done, you pay in full, and the photos are delivered.

So the photos are yours, right?

Not quite. If you've commissioned and paid for photos, what you've acquired is the right to use them, a usage license, not ownership of the work.

Under Spanish law, the author is whoever creates the work. What the client receives is a usage license: permission, ideally in writing, that sets out what the images can be used for, where, and for how long.

It may sound like a fine distinction, but it has practical consequences. In the local market it's very common to commission photography without putting anything in writing, and when that happens, the law doesn't allocate the rights in favor of whoever paid. It does so very narrowly. In this article I explain how authorship works under Spanish law, what a license includes, what happens when nothing is agreed, and how I handle it in my own commissions.

If I pay for the photos, aren't they mine?

Not in the way you might think. It's not like buying a chair or a computer. You're paying for a piece of work and, with it, the right to use the images on the terms agreed with the photographer. Authorship stays with the person who created them, and that matters for how you can use the work later on.

Spain's Intellectual Property Act (Ley de Propiedad Intelectual) says so from its very first article: intellectual property in a work belongs to its author by the mere fact of creating it (art. 1), and the author is the person who creates it (art. 5). It says nothing about the person who commissions it or pays for it.

The same law separates copyright from ownership of the physical object the work is fixed in (art. 3), and adds that acquiring that object does not, on its own, give you any right to exploit the work (art. 56.1). Having the files on your computer doesn't make you the holder of the rights to them.

A comparison helps. When an architect designs your house, the house is yours: you live in it, you can rent it out or sell it. But the design still carries the architect's name. Images work in a similar way: the use is yours, the authorship doesn't change hands.

So what photo usage rights do I actually get?

What you receive is a usage license. Put simply, it's an authorization for you to use the images on the terms that have been agreed.

The law reserves to the author the decision over the reproduction, distribution, communication to the public and transformation of the work (art. 17). Publishing a photo on your website or on a booking platform is, in legal terms, making it available to the public (art. 20.2.i), and that's why it needs this authorization.

A well-drafted license answers at least four questions:

• Which channels you can use the images on: website, social media, booking platforms, advertising.

• Which territory.

• For how long.

• Whether it's exclusive or not.

On that last point, Spanish law requires exclusivity to be granted expressly (art. 48). A non-exclusive license lets the client use the images as agreed, while the author can also continue to use them (art. 50). Non-exclusive licenses are common, partly because they allow the photographer to show the work in their portfolio.

If I only pay for a license, doesn't that limit what I can do with the images?

For your own business, it doesn't have to. Ultimately, what you want is to use those images for the purposes you need, and that's exactly what you get if those purposes are properly agreed.

A well-designed license covers what the commission needs: your website, social media, the booking platforms or property portals where you list, and your sales presentations, in the territory and for the period agreed.

What falls outside it isn't forbidden: it simply hasn't been agreed. A paid advertising campaign, passing the images on to another company or having them published in a magazine are different uses from the original commission. They can be agreed from the start, if you know you'll need them, or later on, as they come up.

It's a bit like the software you use every day: you pay for a license, not for the program itself, and that doesn't stop you from working with it.

There is one limit worth knowing about: the license lets you use the images, not modify them. The law reserves to the author the right to transform the work (art. 17). In my contracts, the only exception is the technical adjustments needed to publish the images on the agreed channels, such as the crop a platform's format requires or compressing a file. Retouching, filters, text over the image and any other changes are not included.

What if you need all the rights? A full assignment, often called a buyout, is possible. It's agreed in writing and at a different fee, because the assignment becomes exclusive and the author can no longer exploit that work (art. 48). For the usual needs of a hotel, an agency or a design studio, a broad license generally covers what's required.

What happens if we don't sign anything with the photographer?

This is the most common situation day to day, so it's important to know what the law says when the parties say nothing.

In that case, the law fills the gap, and it does so narrowly.

Under article 43:

• If the uses aren't specified, the assignment is limited to what necessarily follows from the commission and is essential to fulfill its purpose.

• If no time period is mentioned, it lasts five years.

• If no territory is mentioned, it's limited to the country where it was agreed.

On top of that, it doesn't extend to forms of distribution that didn't exist or weren't known when the commission was made.

For a property that uses its images for years, or that reaches guests from other countries, these minimums can fall short without anyone intending it. And when the client is based outside Spain and there's no contract setting the governing law, it may not even be clear which country's law applies. That's why it's better not to rely on the default rule: agree it in writing.

Is copyright the same as "image rights"?

No, although many people say "image rights" when they mean copyright. The right to one's own image protects the people who appear in a photograph, and in Spain it's governed by Organic Law 1/1982. It's a separate question from copyright: it affects, for example, guests or staff who appear in a hotel's images, and I'll cover it in another article in this series.

How do I handle it in my commissions?

Every commission I take on is set out in writing: with a contract for more complex projects, or with an agreement that sets out the uses, territory and duration for simpler ones.

In my contracts, the license is non-exclusive, worldwide and with no time limit, and it covers the client's own channels: their website, their organic social media, the property portals and booking platforms where they list, and their brochures and sales presentations. It takes effect once the work is paid in full.

Uses that go further, such as paid advertising campaigns, mass media, passing the images on to another company or submitting them to magazines, are agreed separately, with an additional license.

Before you sign with any photographer

Whoever you work with, make sure four questions are answered in writing: where you can use the images, in which territory, for how long, and whether the license is exclusive. If they are, you know exactly what you're getting. If not, the legal minimums apply.

If you'd like to see how I word it in my commissions, feel free to get in touch.

Frequently asked questions

Can I use the photos in paid ads?

It depends on what the license says. In my contracts, paid advertising requires an additional license.

Can I ask for the RAW files?

As a general rule, they aren't delivered, because they're part of the working process, not part of the commission.

If there's no contract, how long can I use the photos?

Under article 43.2 of Spain's Intellectual Property Act, if no time period is mentioned, five years.

Sources

Spain's Intellectual Property Act (Real Decreto Legislativo 1/1996, of 12 April), consolidated text in the Official State Gazette (BOE), in Spanish: https://www.boe.es/buscar/act.php?id=BOE-A-1996-8930 Articles cited: 1, 3, 5, 17, 20.2.i, 43, 48, 50 and 56.1.

Article 43, on what applies when nothing is agreed: https://www.boe.es/buscar/act.php?id=BOE-A-1996-8930#a43

Organic Law 1/1982, of 5 May, on the civil protection of the right to honor, personal and family privacy and one's own image, in Spanish: https://www.boe.es/buscar/act.php?id=BOE-A-1982-11196

This article covers Spanish law. It is for information only and is not a substitute for advice from a qualified lawyer. Last reviewed: October 15, 2026.

I'm Humberto Segura, photographer and filmmaker behind DOMUM. Before turning to images, I practiced law in Chile for almost a decade. I don't practice law in Spain: I write from my legal training and my experience with commissions.