copyright? was she right?

Question

my grandma left me two photos of my uncles killed in world war 11, when she died. the photos were taken in 1939 when they first joined the army.

i wanted to copy them to share amongst my family as the photos were beautiful. the lady on the photo kiosk in asda said that they couldnt be copied as they were protected by copyright.

there was no photographer/studio details on the back of the photos - so dont i own the copyright if they are my photos? was she being small minded and tedious? i was very upset.

from 1939 to 2007 - thats a long time...how long does a 'supposed' copyright last in that case?.. and of course - who owns the copyright of my photos?

Answer 1

Legally, copyright lasts for 70 years after the death of the person who owned it in the first place. In that instance probably the person that took the photo. In practice as you will probably never know who that was it's not really relevant. Copyright, like any other property, can be sold or gifted. So you might be safe in assuming that whoever took the photo gave it to your Grandma and with it gave the copyright, she in turn gave it to you. The woman in the photo kiosk has probably studied law in evening classes, or her friend did, and she's being a pronk. If you want to be really annoying to her go back and tell her that copyright belonged to your grandma who passed it to you so you have a right make a copy, or that you are copying for educational purposes and therefore it comes under the fair use exemption, or she's being bloody minded and it's only if you are publishing them, which you aren't, you're just sharing them with your family. Though it might be less stressful just to go somewhere else where they have sensible staff.

Answer 2

Try a different store.

Tell them you have some old family photos of your deceased uncle. If they indicate there is a copyright issue reply that you were given the photos plus the copyright. Ask them to indicate where on the photo there is evidence of any copyright restriction. If you had a letter indicating this then they would be covered.

An alternative is you can get the photos scanned and be largely free of the problem. A larger copy shop that has self-service scanners is one option.

Respecting copyright is a good idea. Who or what organization took the photos in the first place? If it was a relative then you have little issue but might be asked to show proof that you own the copyright. If it was a professional at the time and there are no records left them it will be hard to prove one way or the other.

Answer 3

I work at a camera shop where we do a lot of reprints, and we are usually pretty uptight about things like copyrights. We have people sign a waver if the origional company is out of business, or we have to contact the photographer and get them to sign a release saying we can make copies otherwise we don't make the picture. We have to do this because if we don't and the person finds out, they can sue us for a lot of money. So while the woman may have been uptight, she has a point to refuse to copy them because of pending legal issues.

However, we do copy WW2 era prints and earlier without finding the origional photographer because usually the photographer is either dead or no longer in business and we can't track them down. If it was the photos the army took then I believe you can make copies of them earlier than normaly because its the army. We don't have any problems coping pics usually unless it looks like a pro studio shot when we have to get a release.

Go talk to another photo store or talk to another person in that store (if you really like that store) about it. There shouldn't really be a problem because it is pretty old.

Answer 4

you do not own copyright to the photos the person/s who took them do or their family. However I think the kiosk lady had her panties on too tight. Either scan them at home or check out another store. If they were taken by the military like in uniform you can perhaps get a release from the military? they have to have run into this problem before.

Answer 5

ALTERNATIVELY, have someone scan them for you and put them on a disk or memory card and take it to some place that does printing from cards or CDs (Walmart, Walgreen, Rite Aide, etc); or, you can send the image via Internet to a commercial printer and that will print it for you. You stand a far better chance of having it printed this way than if you went back to that lady and got into a hassle. Good luck and best wishes (make certain there are no visible copyright numbers, names or company of whoever took the image).

Answer 6

I think the print shop owner is trying to b uselessly cautious
Try if the online printing option suits ,here http://ankit-rythem.blogspot.com/2006/11/online-order-prints-of-digital-images.html