Re: Re: Copyright in X-ray works

On Thursday, March 17, 2005, at 03:35 PM, David Bozak wrote:

> Steven Jamar wrote:
>> Lots of issues lurking here.
>
> [snip]
>
>> Sixth, the person is paying for the service, not the picture, at
>> least in the US. So, the doctor owns the medical records. The
>> radiologist (or, in the US, his or her employer) owns the image.
>
> Is this correct? I ask because I can take my medical records with me
> to a new physician. How, then, does the doctor "own" the records? (I
> ask this because - odd timing - my border collie will be having a
> total hip replacement; x-rays taken at two different veterinary
> hospitals; I have the x-rays, not the doctors and I'd like to have a
> web site (and an article) on the problem, the surgery, and the rehab
> for others to refer to when they are confronting their dog's need for
> a THR).

There may be state laws at play here that change the ownership of the negative of the xray -- but taking the xray with you is like taking the print of the photo. Owning a copy does not make you the owner of the copyright in the records or of the original records.

Any doctor's records I've ever had possession of have been copies with the doctor retaining the original record -- his or her notes, after all. Surely the copyright in the records is with the author of them -- not in the patient.

But this whole area -- medical records -- is but one area where copyright now reaches that it really isn't well suited for.

>
> dab
> --
> David Alan Bozak Associate Dean, Arts & Sciences
> ________|________
> dab[_at_]cs.oswego.edu SUNY Oswego, Oswego, NY 13126
> ___\__(*)__/___
> 315.312.2156 http://www.cs.oswego.edu/~dab o/ \o
> "When cryptography is outlawed, bayl bhgynjf jvyy unir cevinpl."

-- 
Prof. Steven D. Jamar                                     vox:  
202-806-8017
Howard University School of Law                           fax:  
202-806-8428
2900 Van Ness Street NW	                        
mailto:sjamar[_at_]law.howard.edu
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"A word is not a crystal, transparent and unchanged, it is the skin of 
a living thought and may vary greatly in color and content according to 
the circumstances and the time in which it is used."

Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes in Towne v. Eisner, 245 U.S. 418, 425 
(1918)