copyright law?

Question

An hobby of mine is colourising old black&white photos, especialy those of the 1850s --1920s (A computer is a magic tool) I put these colourised photos on little web sites, strictly as a hobby pastime.. I have just had a email asking me to take these colourised photos of a website as im in formed that they are copyright...Could someone tell me when Copyright begins and Copyright ends. As most of the photos are over 100 years old i thought they were out of copyright.... Information please...

Answer 1

Photos of that vintage are in the public domain. The ones you really have to worry about are post 1978 photos. Photographs taken between 1940s through the 1978 are eligible for copyright renewal though, and it's a murky area, and advised that you at least try to find the copyright holders if you plan to publish them for commercial use, say in a book. Sounds like since you are not using the colourised photographs for profit, you would be eligible for Fair Use, which means you can use them for educational purposes in limited instances as long as you credit the original artists and sources, if known. You are also creating derivative works, which means you are changing the original photographs slightly and this could fall into the grey area of copyright law if the photos were more recent. However, photographs of that age, unless owned by a museum or photography archive like Getty images, are fair game.

Answer 2

if the pictures you are working with came out of magazines, or are postcards or other PUBLISHED items, then the advice given is correct. But if you have original photos that are unpublished, that is quite a different situation. in this case, whether in US or UK the rights belong to the photographer for his lifetime plus 70 years. If you can find no biographical info on the photographer, then the photos would need to be 150 years old to be legally assumed to be in public domain.

However unless these photos have a studio stamp, it is unlikely the estate of the photographer could identify these so then it becomes a situation of no harm no foul. With no one to claim infringement, they can be treated like public domain. Even in the unlikely event that one is claimed, because it is not commercially exploited, the worst that would likely happen is you would be legally obligated to remove that picture from public internet display.

Answer 3

Copyright is a very convoluted area of the law.

Based on the age of the photos, I would tend to think they had reverted to the public domain.

If you have some extra time, and are near a law library, I would suggest locating a set of "Nimmer on Copyright". this is a large set of loose-leaf volumes updated continuously which covers every area of copyright, and includes relevant case citations.

Answer 4

I have had similar problem with someone saying some graphics I use are copyrighted.
This has happened several times not just once.
I turn the tables on them and ask them to proves their copyright. They ivariably back down at this.
Pictures that are 100 years old are definately out of copyright.
Stick to your guns

Answer 5

In the US nobody has copyrights to anything made before 1923. Why 1923 you ask? Answer: To protect all Disney's copyrights to Mickey Mouse (believe it or not).

Answer 6

I believe you are right, for them being past copyrights. I would certainly ask the person to show any reason why he believes he holds rights to them?

follow up..someone does not understand or like the idea of intellectal property or copyrights... so they figure that means it doesn't exist ? too funny

Answer 7

I don't get this "intellectual" property either.

What happens when they decide all the copies you stored mentally belong to them, so you have to "cough" up the dough, or do the time?

Mental police? Puh-lease!!! Do I smell a legalized scam here?