Material that's in the public domain remains in the public domain forever. Nobody can attack it and nobody can defend it. You can slap a bogus copyright notice on a public domain work, but that does not change its public domain status.
<warning: personal interest coming>
Do you happen to know if this is true in Canada? I ask because the Gov't of Quebec has several photos on one of their archive websites that are definitely old enough to be P.D. but which they claim to have copyright over. I'm wondering if I could get away with using them without asking.
M
Matt M. wrote:
Material that's in the public domain remains in the public domain forever. Nobody can attack it and nobody can defend it. You can slap a bogus copyright notice on a public domain work, but that does not change its public domain status.
<warning: personal interest coming>
Do you happen to know if this is true in Canada? I ask because the Gov't
of
Quebec has several photos on one of their archive websites that are definitely old enough to be P.D. but which they claim to have copyright over. I'm wondering if I could get away with using them without asking.
Just because the photo's PD doesn't mean a scan of it is. It's the same as how a photograph of public property is copyrightable. That's how I recall it being described to me, anyway. Your mileage (kilometerage?) may vary...
-- Jake
Jake Nelson wrote:
Matt M. wrote:
Material that's in the public domain remains in the public domain forever. Nobody can attack it and nobody can defend it. You can slap a bogus copyright notice on a public domain work, but that does not change its public domain status.
<warning: personal interest coming>
Do you happen to know if this is true in Canada? I ask because the Gov't
of
Quebec has several photos on one of their archive websites that are definitely old enough to be P.D. but which they claim to have copyright over. I'm wondering if I could get away with using them without asking.
Just because the photo's PD doesn't mean a scan of it is. It's the same as how a photograph of public property is copyrightable. That's how I recall it being described to me, anyway. Your mileage (kilometerage?) may vary...
It doesn't mean that the scan is copyright either; that depends on whether there is a creative act in making that scan.
A photograph of public property is copyrightable of course, but, at least in Canada, taking a picture of an permanently placed building or outdoor statue is not a breach of copyright, even if you intend to publish the photograph.
Ec
Ray Saintonge wrote:
It doesn't mean that the scan is copyright either; that depends on whether there is a creative act in making that scan.
True, though the standard for what constitutes a creative act varies widely.
A photograph of public property is copyrightable of course, but, at least in Canada, taking a picture of an permanently placed building or outdoor statue is not a breach of copyright, even if you intend to publish the photograph.
Sure, of course not.... wasn't what I was saying. The issue is that many people will agree that photographs can be creative works, but fail to see that there's no clear distinction between scans and other photographs.
-- Jake
Matt M. wrote:
Material that's in the public domain remains in the public domain forever. Nobody can attack it and nobody can defend it. You can slap a bogus copyright notice on a public domain work, but that does not change its public domain status.
<warning: personal interest coming>
Do you happen to know if this is true in Canada? I ask because the Gov't of Quebec has several photos on one of their archive websites that are definitely old enough to be P.D. but which they claim to have copyright over. I'm wondering if I could get away with using them without asking.
Sure! Why not? I assume that the pictures have a closer connection with Canada. Canada follows the life + 50 rule before material goes into the public domain. U.S. copyright law does not give a person a longer copyright period than he would have in his own country. Thus a picture taken in 1920 that is clearly in the public domain in the United States could still be copyright in Canada if the photographer was still alive in 1953.
Copyright subsists whether on not there is a notice.
Ec