Digital BW, The Print

Old time photographs are usually thought of as those taken about a
generation ago, or earlier. Until fairly recently, a copyright only
lasted 28 years.  Our legal person at the university tried long and hard
to get an exact definition of what was and wasn't legal, and could never
get anyone anywhere to commit to an exact answer. Sort of like the tax
code. The congress writes it but hasn't a clue as to what's in it. Not
even a tax lawyer knows everything in there! The best answer he could
come up with is, you can shoot pictures out of books, both old and new,
and old photographs or paintings for educational use and slide shows in
lectures, etc. You cannot shoot photographs of all the pictures in the
book. But he couldn't say how many pictures you could shoot. You also
cannot sell any of these pictures, of course.

Jerry



Thomas Keesling wrote:
> 
> Jerry wrote:
> 
> >I'd never worry about copying an old postcard for my own purposes. How
> >would you ever track down a copyright?
> 
> Jerry, et al
> 
> The legal experts will always tell you to assume a work is copyrighted
> unless you know for sure that it isn't. And, legally, you should at least
> make an effort to track down the owner whenever you believe a work you are
> interested in using might be copyrighted. There are Web-based tools
> available for doing this, I believe.
> 
> Your comment raises the published vs. unpublished aspect of copyright, in
> addition to the copyright term itself. I would strongly urge you and
> everyone involved in or even considering using someone else's work to review
> and understand the information summarized at
> http://cidc.library.cornell.edu/copyright/. This table is by far the best
> summary of the ever-changing and convoluted U.S. copyright laws that I've
> been able to find on the Web. It's one major shortcoming is that it doesn't
> adequately explain what "publication" means. And, this, like most aspects of
> the Copyright Act, is subject to debate. However, I've found a few sites on
> the Web that offer some valuable insight.
> 
> For a discussion of the term "publication" as it relates to copyright law,
> take a look at http://www.legallanguage.com/lawarticles/Clarida010.html. And
> http://www.artistresource.org/copyrite.htm. And last, but not least,
> http://www.photosecrets.com/p14.html.
> 
> All of us who are considering using others' works in any manner should be
> aware that a significant event occurs on January 1, 2003. This is the
> transfer into the public domain of many unpublished works from what was
> known as "common law" copyright status.
> 
> Basically, as I understand the term, "common law" copyright was the domain
> of the states and covered all works that were not registered with the
> Copyright Office in Washington during the period prior to the enactment of
> the 1978 Copyright Act. Basically, "common law" copyright was perpetual, and
> this state of affairs was ultimately determined to be inconsistent with the
> U.S. Constitution. So, the 1978 Act essentially set a timetable for the
> elimination of "common law" copyright.
> 
> I know...more than you ever wanted to know about copyright law, but it's
> obvious that a couple of individuals involved in these discussions aren't as
> knowledgeable as they should be when it comes to copyright law basics. The
> information is out there. For those who haven't already done so, I urge you
> to take some time to at learn the basics. It may be important to you some
> day.
> 
> I'm not an attorney, but I do have considerable experience interpreting
> Federal and state laws, and that makes it easier for me to dive into these
> sorts of issues and do some research on line and at the local law library. I
> hope this is helpful.
> 
> Tom Keesling
> Intelligent Design, Inc.
> 
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