On 6/8/05, JFN <jfnbl[_at_]earthlink.com> wrote:
>
> Because they aren't going to give permission until you ask for it.
That is not the answer to my question: Why did the author need permission from National Portrait Gallery? If it happens that your answer is the right one, the author still made a big mistake in asking for permission.
> Trespass.
Nowhere in the original inquiry suggests that the author physically walked on the land property of National Portrait Gallery to purchase a reproduction of the image.
> What difference would that make?
Just because the year is 1811 does not necessarily mean that the clock of U.S. copyright term starts at 1811. In order to analyze the copyright issue properly, it is important to know whether the image is in the public domain because it determines the copyrightability in the reproductions of the image.
> The issue is where the infringement occurs, not where you're standing
> with the protected work. The Courts in Mexico and the U.S. give the
> same rights to foreign copyright owners that they give to native
> copyright owners. This is beyond my experience, but my understanding
> is that if the book is distributed only in the U.S., you can be
> charged with infringement based on subject matter jurisdiction under
> the laws of the U.S. or under the laws of the country which granted
> copyright protection (if they can serve you). The copyright holder
> can pick the forum with the broadest scope of copyright protection.
> So the short answer is that it doesn't matter unless your best
> defense is ineffective service of process. I'd appreciate correction
> on that point if I'm mistaken.
It is not clear to me what you are talking about but I will make a comment. Infringement can be actionable only under the laws of the country where it occurs. If it is determined that there is no copyright in the reproduction of the image under the U.S. copyright law and the books are sold only in the U.S., there is no infringement and the foreign copyright owner (in this case, National Portrait Gallery) has no basis for suing the author in the land of the U.S. The copyright holder does not simply use any other country's copyright law to sue the alleged infringers in the U.S.
Copyright infringement is not the only issue that the author has to worry about. Breach of agreement is another thing that the author has to worry about.
Joseph Pietro Riolo
<josephpietrojeungriolo[_at_]gmail.com>
<riolo[_at_]voicenet.com>
Number of days left until 1-1-2019 when all knowledge of 1923 in the land of the U.S.A. will be freed from their copyright owners' prisons: 4,952
Public domain notice: I put all of my expressions in this post in the public domain. Received on Fri Jun 10 2005 - 20:25:00 GMT
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