Matt Brown wrote:
E.g. I have a copy of the 1922 Locomotive Cyclopedia of American Practice. Being published and printed in 1922, it is now out of copyright in the US - not only the original work being out of copyright, but any possible new copyright created by making the copy, since the copy I own is itself old enough to be independently out of copyright.
I can legally scan any image in the book and place it on Wikipedia. I do not need to assume the validity of Bridgeman v. Corel in order to do so.
If Bridgeman v. Corel is overturned, then I can still copy MY copy of the book, but I cannot take someone else's scans from their website and use those.
If the original image was in the public domain there is nothing wrong about your using someone else's scan of the image. That other person's scan of a public domain work is not copyrightable.
Ec