An interesting theory, but it does not work, of course, or Commons policy would be in chaos. You cannot arbitarily choose which country is the one in which the works were published to suit Commons' convenience.
There is no choice of law here: the photographs were taken in the UK, of paintings held in the UK, on behalf of a UK museum, and have been published by that museum on a UK website and by issuing postcards and other reproductions in the UK. Why would any UK court think that US law should be applied?
Michael
geni wrote:
2008/7/23 Michael Maggs Michael@maggs.name:
Nobody wants to delete these images but Commons policy is that the image must be PD in both the and the UK. According to this recent case law, these are clearly copyright images in the UK.
Michael
Strangely no. Commons requires works to be PD in the US and country of origin. Anywhere a work has been published will do as it's country of origin. In their ah more extreme attempts to expand their jurisdiction UK courts have decided that if a website is viewable in the UK it is published there. Extending this doctrine we can conclude that they would take the view that if a website is visible in the US the work is published there. Since the works have been published in the US we only need concern ourselves with US law.