Re: Photographs

> I've got some photographs which I assume to be copyrighted (most of
> the photographs are). The photographs are in a book, but there is no
> copyright notice for any of the pictures. In the back of the book, it
> is mentioned that the photos are from the collection of (someone's
> name). Other photos are said to be the courtesy of (company's name).
> The question is: can I publicly perform (i.e. show on my WWW page)
> these photographs without infringing the copyright laws?

Well, lets see...

If you scan it in, you have violated a copyright if one exists, even if you don't distribute it. So you can't even get it into the computer legally.

Second, Web display is not public performance. Really. It is no different than putting something up for anonymous ftp. (In fact, the two technologies are nearly functionally identical. You can put html pages up for anonymous ftp, and people can follow links to other html pages up for anonymous ftp. You can download files through the Web, and that's how I receive software all the time.)

How does this sound:

"I have some programs (like Word) from a disk I bought from Microsoft.  Can I put this up on my anonymous ftp site without infringing  copyright?"

Quite obviously, Microsoft would come looking for your head on a silver platter. Or at least your wallet.

However, the authors might be willing to provide you with permission to distribute the works in the context of a Web page. They might not even want too much money for it.

Keith Graham
vapspcx[_at_]cad.gatech.edu Received on Thu Nov 30 1995 - 22:42:55 GMT