[Wikimedia-l] Copyright on Xrays

[Tomasz Ganicz]

2012/8/20 James Heilman <jmh649 at gmail.com>:
> 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:
>
> 1) They are in the public domain
> https://open.umich.edu/wiki/Casebook#Radiograph_.28X-Ray.29 and
> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Copyright_law_of_the_United_Kingdom#Works_eligible_for_protection
>
> 2) The X ray tech who took the image
> 3) The person / institution who paid to have the image taken
>  a) The HMO or patient if in the USA
>  b) The government if in many parts of the world
> 4) The doctor who ordered the image
> 5) The doctor who read the image
> 6) The hospital / shareholders of the hospital who owns the equipment
> 7) All of the above / some of the above / none of the above
>

I head a discussion about it (actually about mainly histopalogical
microscopic pictures of human tissues but also about other medical
documentary photos) with some lawers and the conclusion was, that such
a pictures from legal POV are not different than just any others. So:
a) if the picture is taken automatically by machine in routine way (in
case of X-ray, NMR and some other techinques this is usually atomatic
and routine) - they are not copyrightable, as this is not any creative
work.
b) if the picture is taken by human using machine (for example USG or
pictures taken with in-body camera) - the situation is just like with
normal picture taken by camera - the author is the person who took the
picture
c) if the author is an employee who took a picture as part of his/her
normal job obligations the copyrights (at least in Poland) belongs
automatically to the employer. (usually hospital or other medical
institution).
d) if the picture was made as a work by hire (for example in private
USG operator) - who holds the copyright belongs what is writen in
operator regulations - and if the regulations do not contains any
points regarding transfer of copyright - it belongs to the operator.

Of course, except copyright owner agreement - publication of such the
pictures need acceptation by the subject of them - as it is usually a
part of medical documentation which - at least in Poland - is
confidential.


-- 
Tomek "Polimerek" Ganicz
http://pl.wikimedia.org/wiki/User:Polimerek
http://www.ganicz.pl/poli/
http://www.cbmm.lodz.pl/work.php?id=29&title=tomasz-ganicz