Re: PHOTO-3D digest 1314

[P3D Marvin Jones <72657.3276@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

> Yes, the photos still retain copyright. You could end up with a problem if
> you copy them. Viewmaster lost a suit to a American Indian family for
> printing a relative without permission. (1880's photo). Be careful.
> 
That doesn't sound like it concerned copyright so much as some other kind of
image release. TECHNICALLY anything as old as Civil War era would have long
since passed out of copyright under either the old or the new laws. I notice
that some stock photo places like Bettman and Archive Photo do claim copyright
on Civil War era photos they distribute, although I don't understand what they
base their claim on. Whenever I ask I get an answer somewhat akin to W.C. Fields
saying, "Go away, kid, ya bother me!" The original copyright law was a simple 28
years renewable once, or a total of 56 years. When the movie studios began to
realize that their prime early talkie movies were about to begin slipping into
public domain they lobbied for a new law which is much more filled with
lawyerese but basically extends copyrights for the lifetime of the creator plus
50 years, or a flat 100 years in the case of a corporate copyright (such as a
movie). Now they are lobbying to try and eliminate the whole concept of public
domain entirely, but AT THE MOMENT anything over a maximum of 100 is still PD. A
good copyright lawyer is still an indispensable tool, because there is a lot of
effort being made, particularly in Hollywood, to find ways to extend copyrights
regardless of the law (such as the case of It's A Wonderful Life, which was
public domain for a couple of decades until some clever character figured out
that it could still be controlled because some element of the music track had
been renewed even though the film itself had not.)


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