[Wikimedia-l] Copyright on Xrays

[Thomas Dalton]

On 20 August 2012 12:08, James Heilman <jmh649 at gmail.com> wrote:
> A question about copyright, who owns the copyright on Xrays and are they
> even copyrightable? I have uploaded a few of them and no one seems to know
> the answer. I guess the options would be:

Why is it any different to any other work created during employment?
The employer owns the copyright in almost all those cases. The client
(patient, HMO, whatever) only owns it is there is a specific
contractual agreement to that effect, and I can't see why there would
be. It's the same as when pay a professional photographer to take nice
photos of you - they own the copyright unless you explicitly buy it
off them.

In countries with public healthcase, the employer may be a public body
and there may be different rules (are x-rays taken by NHS
radiographers under Crown Copyright?). There may also be special rules
in some countries regarding medical records, although I wouldn't
expect them to remove the copyright (just give a statutory license for
certain uses).