On 9 November 2012 08:30, Daniel Mietchen
<daniel.mietchen(a)googlemail.com> wrote:
Hi all,
I am in discussion with a UK museum over the release of an image from
their digital collection under more liberal terms than CC BY NC. It is
of a portrait made around 1915, of someone who died before 1930. I
don't know who the painter was, nor whether or when they died. I don't
know who made the photo or whether the portrait is actually in the
museum (I suppose it is).
Is the above information sufficient to determine the copyright status
of the digital copy?
http://www.bl.uk/reshelp/pdfs/copyrightflowchart.pdf is worth saving
for future use :-)
As Fae says, you'll really need to determine if the painter is
actually anonymous or just not known to them - it might be worth
checking the ODNB/Grove etc, which often list known paintings of
people, or consulting biographies to see if they have a reproduction
with a name attached.
If you can identify the painter, it's life + 70, which means anyone
who died in 1941 or earlier (in two months, 1942 or earlier).
If you can't, and it's "properly anonymous", it's a mess. It then
comes down to whether the painting was "published" - has it ever been
reproduced in print? If so, copyright expires 70 years later - so if
it was published by the 1930s, you're safe. If it wasn't published but
has been exhibited ("made available to the public"), copyright remains
until the end of 2039, or 70 years after first exhibition if that's
longer. If it's never been made available to the public - which is
likely if they have a photo - then copyright remains until the end of
2039.
The 2039 provision is quite horrendous, and entirely counterintuitive
- in theory, it can assign copyright to medieval works, despite the
fact that the owner of such continuing copyright is entirely
untraceable.
--
- Andrew Gray
andrew.gray(a)dunelm.org.uk