[Foundation-l] At least 500 images will have to be deleted from the National Portrait Gallery

[geni]

2008/7/23 Michael Maggs <Michael at maggs.name>:
> 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.

That depends on the legal system. Under UK law the national gallery
has chosen to publish in the US. You will note the the BBC goes out of
it's way to limit what people from the US can view and listen to on
it's website. The national gallery was free to do that but did not.
Thus the images were published in the US and as long as they were
copied across by someone in the US are no different from any other
pure US image.

> 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

They wouldn't but they would think the photos have been published in
the US. They would of course argue that commons is publishing the
photos in the UK so UK law also applies but they would argue that
about all our photos.


-- 
geni