Terms of Use & Copyright Notice

Last updated: May 2026. These terms apply to all images and content published on photohabitat.co.uk.

1. Ownership of images and content

All photographs, images, text, and other content published on this website are the original work of Photo Habitat and are owned by Jon Wade trading as Photo Habitat, Chelmsford, Essex. (“we”, “us”, “our”).

Our images are protected by copyright under the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988 (UK), the Berne Convention for the Protection of Literary and Artistic Works (international), and applicable copyright law in all jurisdictions in which those laws apply. Copyright subsists automatically on creation of an original work — no registration is required for copyright to exist or be enforceable.

2. Restricted uses — what you may not do

Unless you have purchased a licence from us (see Section 4), or we have given explicit written permission, you may not:

• Copy, download, or save any image from this website;
• Reproduce, republish, or display any image on another website, social media platform, blog, or digital medium;
• Print, publish, or distribute any image in any physical or digital format;
• Use any image for commercial purposes, including advertising, merchandise, or promotional material;
• Use any image editorially without a licence, including in news articles, books, magazines, or reports;
• Alter, crop, edit, or create derivative works from any image;
• Remove, obscure, or alter any watermark, metadata, or copyright notice associated with any image;
• Sub-license, sell, or transfer any image to a third party.

Sharing a direct link to a page on this website is permitted and encouraged.

3. Permitted uses without a licence

You may:

• View images on this website for personal, non-commercial enjoyment;
• Share a URL link to any page on this website on social media or elsewhere;
• Display a purchased print in your home or private space for personal enjoyment (see Section 5 for print licence terms).

4. Obtaining a licence

We offer licences for personal print use (via our Prints page) and for commercial, editorial, and other uses. Please contact us to discuss your requirements before using any image. We are happy to accommodate reasonable requests.

A licence is specific to the image, use, size, medium, duration, and territory agreed at the time of purchase. Any use outside those agreed parameters requires a further licence.

5. Prints purchased from this website

Prints purchased from Photo Habitat are licensed for personal display only at the address provided at the time of order. This licence does not include:

• Commercial display (e.g. in a business, office, hotel, or public venue);
• Reproduction or copying of the print;
• Resale of the print for commercial gain;
• Any use of the image beyond the physical print supplied.

If you wish to display a print commercially, please contact us — a commercial display licence can usually be arranged at a modest additional fee.

6. Digital file licences

Where a digital file is purchased, the licence covers personal printing only — for your own use, at the size and format agreed. The digital file may not be shared, distributed, uploaded to any platform, used commercially, or used to create derivative works. Full resolution files remain our intellectual property; purchasing a digital file purchases a limited licence to use it, not ownership of the image or its copyright.

7. Unlicensed use — fees and cost recovery

We actively monitor the use of our images online using image recognition and reverse image search technology. If we identify unlicensed use of any image, we will seek to recover the licensing fee that should have been paid, together with associated costs.

Unlicensed use is subject to:

• The applicable licence fee as listed on our Prints page at the time the use is identified, or the commercial rate where applicable;
• An administrative charge of £100 per image to cover the cost of identification, correspondence, and administration;
• Any legal or recovery costs reasonably incurred in pursuing the matter, including solicitor fees where applicable;
• All fees applied per instance of use.

Example: If an image is used without a licence to produce and sell 50 prints at a market or on a platform such as Etsy, the fee would be calculated as: 50 instances × the applicable licence fee (e.g. £22 per instance = £1,100), plus the £100 administrative charge, plus any legal costs incurred. The total in this example would be a minimum of £1,200, before legal costs.

If you believe you are using one of our images under a mistaken belief that it is free to use, please contact us immediately. We are reasonable and will always seek to resolve matters amicably where possible.

8. International copyright protection

Our images are protected internationally under the Berne Convention, to which over 180 countries are signatories. This means our copyright is automatically recognised in all member states, including across the European Union, the United States, Canada, Australia, and the vast majority of the world. The absence of a copyright notice, watermark, or registration does not affect the validity or enforceability of our copyright in any jurisdiction.

In the United States, our works are protected under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA). We reserve the right to issue DMCA takedown notices to any platform hosting our images without authorisation.

9. Moral rights

Under the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988, we assert our moral rights to be identified as the author of all works on this site. Images must not be falsely attributed to another person or presented in a derogatory context that could damage our reputation.

10. AI training and machine learning

The use of any image from this website for the purpose of training artificial intelligence or machine learning models is expressly prohibited without prior written consent. This applies regardless of whether the intended use is commercial or non-commercial, and regardless of the technical method used to obtain the image.

11. Changes to these terms

We may update these terms from time to time. The date at the top of this page indicates when the terms were last revised. Continued use of this website following any update constitutes acceptance of the revised terms.

12. Governing law

These terms are governed by the laws of England and Wales. Any disputes arising from the use of this website or our images shall be subject to the exclusive jurisdiction of the courts of England and Wales, unless applicable law in your jurisdiction requires otherwise.