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Contract, for-hire photographers aren't employees. Freelance programmers give up their copyright willingly. Just because you negotiated badly doesn't mean photographers have to as well.

Go buy your own camera and learn to take photos properly! I would encourage everyone to do that. The exact moment that you grasp mastery of photography will be the day that you understand why photographers don't give up their copyright or hand over digital files to you.

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> Freelance programmers give up their copyright willingly.

No, they give them up because that's _the entire point of hiring a freelancer_. It sounds absurd to pay someone to create something but not actually get that thing for yourself. That's what the money is in exchange for.

> No, they give them up because that's _the entire point of hiring a freelancer_.

Not really. My clients are paying for results, and part of those results include a license to use the code I write forever.

But I never give up the copyright. I frequently re-use techniques, libraries, modules, etc across clients, and in fact would be stupid not to.

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