[Commons-l] [Fwd: Re: Elizabeth I portrait at Hatfield House]

Dear Mike Godwin, I have been passed your e-mail address by David Monniaux, and I hope that you will be able to help me. On the Elizabeth I page of Wikipedia, there is a digital photograph of a portrait of Elizabeth I that we own the original of. As I'm sure you are aware, the law in the UK and the US differs as to copyright in copies of works of art that are out of copyright. The digital image in question was taken from a photograph of the painting that was taken in the UK in 1985. On the page http://commons.wikipedia.org/wiki/Commons:When_to_use_the_PD-Art_tag Wikipedia says that: "Where the photograph was taken in a country (such as the UK) where faithful photographic reproductions of 2D works of art are generally considered to be protected by copyright, or in a country (such as a Nordic country) that provides 'simple photograph' protection: In such a case, either take your own photograph of the original work of art and license your photographic copyright under a free license, or approach the photographic copyright owner and ask for the copyright to be released under a free license." I feel that this rule has not been adhered to in this case as the photograph was taken in the UK. In fact, the uploader of the image has now changed the author to 'Hatfield House' and made it look as though we have released the image into the public domain! I am aware that international copyright law is a complicated subject to which no-one appears to have a satisfactory answer and we have no wish to have the image removed from this free resource. However, maybe the copyright notice could be altered to reflect the true position. The photograph was taken in the UK, the image scanned in the UK and was uploaded in the UK. Surely then if someone in the UK then re-used the image for their own work they would have broken UK copyright law? Perhaps it could be stated something to the effect that 'This is a photograph taken in the UK of a piece of artwork whose copyright has expired. It is considered to be in the Copyright of the Marquess of Salisbury in the UK and to be out of Copyright in the US. Please make sure you know the copyright position in your own country before re- using it', or something similar. We are happy for our photograph to be used (as indeed it has been all over the web) but obviously as we are in the middle of a major process of digitising some of our paintings, it would be best to get this issue cleared up. If, for example, in the future, this were to come up again over a painting that we have only photographed once and have only issued to people under licence (for example a publisher's licence that restricts its use to the purpose for which the image was supplied) would you take the signed licence agreement as a reason to take the image down? With best wishes and thank you for your time, Vicki Perry (This is a link to the image: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Elizabeth_Rainbow_Portrait.jpg There is also one at

, which states that the photograph was taken in the US. It was not and this should also be changed. Similarly: http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Image:Elizabeth1England.jpg states that the photograph was taken in the US when it was not. ______________ Vicki Perry, Assistant Archivist, Hatfield House, Hatfield, Herts. AL9 5NF