[WikiEN-l] Google Earth copyright (now that you bring it up)

[Matt Brown]

On 1/21/06, Haukur Þorgeirsson <haukurth at hi.is> wrote:
> That wouldn't be a bad thing. But remember that it's not as simple as
> 'free' and 'non-free'. We have *a lot* of images which are in the public
> domain in the United States but not elsewhere. Last time I mentioned the
> Bridgeman images as an example. Here's another:
>
> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Hundingsbane.jpg
>
> This image is in the public domain in the United States but under present
> law the copyright will hold in Europe until 2046.

Are you absolutely sure that it is PD in the US?  Only if you can be
sure that it was first published/copyright registered in the US.  If
it was created or first published elsewhere, then the pre-1923 rule
does not apply, thanks to international convention.

Certainly the image description page does not answer this question,
but it mentions a book  first published in London, which would count
against this theory if that was the first publication of this image.

-Matt