2009/3/30 Gerard Meijssen gerard.meijssen@gmail.com:
Hoi, When you talk about clearing properly you are applying modern notions to historic situations. The notion of copyright and clearing copyrights is quite modern. Licensing is also quite modern. It is easy to expect the clearing of copyright to be done properly it is however an unreasonalbe expectation.
Truly historic images are not a problem, as they should be PD. The more recent the images get, the more sensible the agencies, museums and other institutions get to properly record the rights issue. It is not an unreasonable expection but a necassary one.
Mathias