[Wikimedia-l] Copyright on Xrays

[Birgitte_sb at yahoo.com]

On Aug 20, 2012, at 6:08 AM, 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:
> 
> 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
> 
> Would be good to have a legal position on this.
> -- 
> 

In most cases ( Covering the significant majority of all x-rays existing, but not ruling out the possibility of rare uses of X-ray photography as an artistic medium) .  . .

7 None of the above

Utilitarian work = uncopyrightable 

BirgitteSB