Klaus Graf writes:
For years there was no doubt that Bridgeman v. Corel was accepted on Commons. It is said that British courts would'nt accept Bridgeman v. Corel but there is no proof for this. It is true, in the contrary, that the NY US judge has diligently discussed UK law with the result that also according UK copyright law mere reproductions are NOT protected.
Bridgeman vs. Corel is an essential point for Commons and for all Wikimedia projects. This is not an issue some Commons pseudo-experts could decide. Before 500+ pictures of PUBLIC DOMAIN PAINTINGS are to be deleted the board of the Foundation should decide if Moeller's quote above is still its position.
I think it's still the Foundation's position, Klaus. We've gotten the occasional note from the National Portrait Gallery in the UK, asserting copyrights in reproductions of very old paintings, but to my knowledge we've never actually faced anything like legal action or a DMCA takedown notice regarding such images. I think the National Portrait Gallery may be afraid to put their claims to the test in actual litigation, since doing so would be a straightforward assault on the public domain, and could raise international enforcement issues besides. While I respect the Commons community's engagement in the issue of keeping Commons clear from copyright problems, it should be stressed that it is unclear whether the Foundation currently has any legal problems as a result of the public-domain paintings in question appearing on Commons.
--Mike Godwin General Counsel Wikimedia Foundation