Re: Photographs

On Mon, 25 Mar 1996, Morgan E Malino <morgan[_at_]gwis2.circ.gwu.edu> wrote:
>
> On Sun, 24 Mar 1996, Martin Perlberger wrote:
> >
> > Mike Lean wrote:
> > >
> > snip
> > > Would some kind person please advise me as to the duration of copyright
> > > in photographs originally published in the United States? We're trying
> > > to get permission to use a picture of Harry Houdini probably taken and
> > > published around 1920.
> >
> > Copyright duration depends on the law of each country relating to
> > copyright.
> >
> > In the U.S.A., the copyright duration would depend, among other things,
> > on the copyright proprietor/author's status: individual, corporate,
> > employer-for-hire, living, deceased(when?), assignee, etc.?
>
> Actually, the answer seems to be fairly straight-forward. Sec. 304(b)
> states, "The duration of any copyright, the renewal term of which is
> subsisting at any time between December 31, 1976, and December 31,
> 1977, inclusive, or for which renewal registration is made between
> December 31, 1976, and December 31, 1977, inclusive, is extended to
> endure for a term of seventy-five years from the date copyright was
> originally secured." In other words, if the picture had its copyright
> renewed (something you would have to research) and was still in
> existence between 12/31/76 - 12/31/77, then the copyright has a 75
> year term.
>
> If the date of the publication was before 3/25/21, then the work is in
> the public domain, and can be used freely. If the the work is not more
> than 75 years old, then other questions become relevant (was it
> copyrighted before publication, was its term renewed, did the owner
> apply for extensions [relevant because many works had their terms
> extended so as to "subsist" between the relevant dates]).
>
>
> Morgan Malino
> 3L George Washington Law School

One slight correction: Section 305 states that "All terms of copyright provided by sections 302 through 304 run to the end of the calendar year in which they would otherwise expire."

    This means that a work published and copyrighted in 1921 and still under copyright in 1978 would still be under copyright until the end of this year.

        Bob Kreiss

• Robert A. Kreiss Phone: 513-229-2256 *
• Professor of Law Fax: 513-229-2469 *
• Director, Program in Law and Technology *
• University of Dayton School of Law *
• Dayton, OH 45469-1320 *

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