Re: State Susceptibility to Suit for Copyright and Patent Infringement

On 03, August 1998, Dan L Burk <burkdanl[_at_]shu.edu> wrote:
>
> On 7/31/98, Christine L. Sundt <csundt[_at_]oregon.uoregon.edu> wrote:
> >
> > Let's remember that when we talk about pre-modern art in the context
> > of copyright we are often referring to the image of the artwork --
> > the photograph, slide, transparency, reproduction, scan (digital
> > file) -- so copyright is relevant even though the underlying work is
> > in the public domain. Access to the artwork is often controlled
> > under property rights and it may be that the owner of the property
> > is the only holder of a legitimate copyright-protected image of the
> > artwork.
>
> The problem with this analysis (similar to Pat Sloane's) is the rule
> of the Sega and Nintendo cases -- once I have posession of a copy,
> it is fair use for me to make what would otherwise be an infringing
> copy in order to extract the underlying public domian elements. So
> I may not be able to reproduce the museum's image without their
> authorization, but I probably *can* scan it without their
> authorization to make my own image.

In the case of a printed photo of the Mona Lisa, I cannot see how one would do this if the photo is recent enough not to be in PD. The best course is, of course, to find PD photos of the Mona Lisa, i.e., ones from about 1920 or earlier.

Michael A Scarpitti
Assistant Editor
Materials Evaluation
1711 Arlingate Lane
PO Box 28518
Columbus, Ohio 43228-0518
800 222-2768 Ext 207
614 274-6003 Ext 207
Fax 614 274-6899
<mscarpit[_at_]asnt.org> Received on Tue Aug 04 1998 - 17:10:31 GMT