On 6/22/99, Linda Cullen <lcullen[_at_]sipress.si.edu> wrote:
>
> I just read with a great deal of interest an article about a recent
> U.S. District Court case (2nd Circuit Court of NY) wherein it was
> decided that owners of photos or transparencies of artwork in the
> public domain can no longer claim copyright to the photos and
> transparencies. The article entitled "Photos Lose Copyright Rights"
> by Joshua Kaufman, Esq. appeared in Art Business News, January 1999.
> Since the article is six months old, I wondered if anything has
> changed about this ruling since then? Will it go to the Supreme
> Court?
I heard that Bridgeman, on the advice and/or authority of the American Association of Museums (AAM), has decided not to appeal the rulings against them. Am I right in assuming that they are allowing the decision to stand to avoid setting a precedent in a higher court?
This is a widely discussed decision. Has anyone begun to copy and publish the kind of reproductive photographs of PD art that was the subject of the Bridgeman case, doing so on the authority of the decision? Or is it still considered risky business?
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