copyright laws re: scanned images

Hello all, this is my first time writing to the list. I am the webmaster of a major photographic archive on the web, and have a few questions regarding scanned images and images gathered from the public domain Usenet.

I have been told many different stories, and would like opinion from some of the legal experts frequenting this list. My website presents scanned images collected from the public-domain areas of the Usenet newsgroups in archived format for a small access fee (donation, since it is not truly required, but suggested). Here are some conflicting statements I have been told by different people:

(1) If I post pictures I collect from the Usenet, I am not breaking
copyright laws because the Usenet is public-domain, and any images posted there are posted with the knowledge that they are now in the public domain, and available for download to all.

(2) If someone scans a photograph from a published magazine, then
posts it to the Usenet, it is illegal.

(3) If someone scans an image from a magazine, then writes a small
acknowledgement on the bottom of each image, stating the source and copyright status of the image, it is not illegal because the scanner is stating that he/she is aware that the image is copyrighted.

(4) If someone scans an image from a magazine, then manipulates the
image slightly (altering colors, etc), the image is no longer copyrighted because the scanner has performed sufficient work on the image such that it is no longer equal to the original.

(5) If someone scans an image from a magazine, then posts it on a
website and uses it for teaching purposes or for commentary or criticism, it is legal usage of a copyrighted image.

(6) It is OK for a webmaster to post images if it is impossible to find
the original owner of the images to ask his/her permission. But if the owner ever appears, sees the images, and asks the webmaster to remove them, the webmaster must comply.

(7) Anything posted to the Usenet is fair game, is 100% public domain,
and is exempt from copyright law because the laws cannot truly be enforced.

(8) The only way for a photographic website to be completely within the
law is to post ONLY original images taken by the webmaster/photographer himself/herself.

(9) The webmaster of such a site may post anything he/she wants,
copyrighted or not, as long as the webmaster is not charging for access or making money in any way from the copyrighted images.

These are just some opinions I have heard, and I would like to know which of them are true or false, and if there is a good, thick reference book I can pick up which explains copyright law (with regards to the Internet) in detail.

Thanks in advance,

Francesco Sanfilippo
Webmaster, Five Senses Productions
fls[_at_]pacbell.net Received on Thu Oct 31 1996 - 18:27:53 GMT