RE: Copying old stereo to new...

[P3D Gregory J. Wageman <gjw@xxxxxxxxxx>]

Dan Richardson responds to my post:

>>Turn-of-the-century stereoviews have long since passed into the public
>>domain, and may be copied at will, altered, scanned and published on
>>Web pages, etc.

>Copyright expires some number of years (50?) after the death of the
>original copyright holder. Where the copyright holder was an
>individual photographer, you're correct, they're long gone. Where
>the copyright holder was the ubiquitous Keystone, a company which 
>survived at least into the 1960s, I believe you are mistaken.

This is a common misconception, and makes my point about the broad
misunderstanding about copyrights.  Copyright law was severely amended
in 1976, and again in 1992.

For works created on and after January 1, 1978, and not "made for hire",
the "life-plus-50" rule applies.  For older works, the rules are more
complicated, depending on the date they were first copyrighted.

Furthermore, works copyrighted by Keystone would qualify as "works
made for hire", for which the copyright duration under the CURRENT
law is 75 years from first publication or 100 years from creation,
whichever is shorter, not "life-plus-50".

Here is a brief excerpt from Copyright Office circular number
15a, titled "Duration of Copyright".  This circular is available
free from the Copyright Office of the Library of Congress:

"Duration Under The Previous Law

 Under the law in effect before 1978, copyright was secured either on
the date a work was published, or on the date of registration if the
work was registered in unpublished form.  In either case, the copyright
lasted for a first term of 28 years from the date it was secured.  The
copyright was eligible for renewal during the last (28th) year of the
first term.  If renewed, the copyright was extended for a second term
of 28 years. [Footnote 1: For a number of copyrights, the second term
was extended beyond 28 years by special legislation.]  If not renewed,
the copyright expired at the end of the first 28-year term.  The term
of copyright for works published with a year date in the notice that
is earlier than the actual date of publication is computed from the
year date in the copyright notice."

So, prudently assuming copyright was properly renewed, under the old
law it expired after 56 years.  The amended law extended to a toal of
75 years copyrights that were *still in effect* on Decemeber 31, 1976,
but for this to be true they would have to have come into existence in
1920 or later.  Therefore, any stereoview originally published prior
to 1920 or bearing a copyright date earlier than 1920 is in the public
domain.

I'm not a lawyer, this is my educated opinion based on publicly-
available copyright information, it is not to be construed as
legal advice.

        -Greg W.


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