Hacker News Reader

All of the statet rights belong to the artist and better be explicitly transferred to you in a contract. Including the formats and the right to edit. Just about everything you can Imagen...

Between a wedding, maternity and newborn photos (x2), I can tell you that just because you're paying somebody to take pictures, does not mean you have any copyright. People (esp. small-time people) are starting to sell the rights but it's far from a given and it has to be stated in the contract.

The contract would have to explicitly give you the right to copy, yes.