On Wed, 09 Apr 1997, Christine Sundt <csundt[_at_]oregon.uoregon.edu> wrote:
>
> I'd like to recommend that in 1921, photography was outside the
> realm of lot of people (amateurs), and that the point-and-shoot
> camera did not exist. The most common apparatus used for
> photography took a lot of skill and ability by the operator.
> Indeed, indoor photography was even harder without what we know
> today as the automatic flash. Is this case still relevant to
> today's circumstances?
The language in the early cases is repeated over and over in more modern cases. This continues to reinforce the idea that most photographs are copyrightable. It may be difficult to find an example of a very simple photograph taken with a point-and-shoot camera where someone is actually suing someone *and* the opinion is reported.
An example of a modern, and also famous, case addressing the originality of the photo before it:
"But the quantity of originality that need be shown is modest--only a dash of it will do. Id. at 1287; 1 M. Nimmer & D. Nimmer, Nimmer on Copyright S 1.08[C][1] (1991) (Nimmer). Elements of originality in a photograph may include posing the subjects, lighting, angle, selection of film and camera, evoking the desired expression, and almost any other variant involved. See Burrow Giles, 111 U.S. at 60, 4 S.Ct. at 282. 1 Nimmer, S 2.08[E][1]."
Rogers v. Koons, 960 F.2d 301 (2d Cir. 1992).
Two things are important here. First, what is the rationale behind finding that most photographs are copyrightable? Usually what is mentioned are the photographer's choices in lighting, pose, angle, locale, etc. Although the technology of photography may have changed a great deal in the last 75 years, those choices have not. Second is the very low threshold of creativity required to satisfy originality. Short of closing your eyes and taking a photo completely without thought, I don't think there are too many photographs that would not be said to meet this requirement.
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