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Daniel Kinzler wrote: |> Sorry, but you are wrong on several points: |> 1. The French law is 70 years pma. |> 2. Alain-Fournier is born in 1882, and was 18 years old in 1904. |> 3. The picture was made in 1904, on Alain-Fournier's 18 birthday. | | So... how old was the *photographer* when the image was taken? Let's use the | exmaple from the deletion request. If the photographer was 40 in 1904 and lived | to be 74 (not unreasonable), so he died in 1938, the Photo would only become PD | next year (70 years *pma*). If he was only 30 when he took the image and died in | 1948, it's in copyright for another 10 years. This is not taking into account | the extensions of copyright given for the time of the world wars by french law | -- a total of nearly 15 extra years of copyright. If the creator was killed in | either war, there's even an extension of 30 years. | | So, assuming PD for an image that is 100 years old means assuming the | photographer lived no more than 30 years after taking the picture -- not a safe | bet. For France, the situation is even worse, because of the extensions | mentioned above. | | I think some rule of thumb was established at some point, but I'm not sure what | is was. I think 200 years would be safe, and perhaps 150 are also. but even 120 | are not enough, IMHO. | | Anyway... you said we accept content that is a lot less safe than this. Like | what, exactly? | | -- Daniel
In the United States, anonymous or pseudonymous works are protected for 120 years from date of creation--this addresses this issue, and would be a reasonable safety margin. Besides, if someone does come back and say, "WHOA, that's my father's estate, you can't publish it!" we'd what...take it down? 120 years is a very good place to draw the line.
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