[Wikimedia-l] Radiological images

[Petr Kadlec]

On Tue, Sep 17, 2013 at 4:02 AM, Asaf Bartov <abartov na wikimedia.org> wrote:

> IANAL, but my interpretation would be that X-rays are not copyrightable,
> since they are not creative works, period.
>

Note that e.g. in the Czech Republic, “[a] photograph or a work produced by
a process similar to photography” has lower threshold on
originality/creativity; it is protected “if it is original in the sense
that it is the author’s own intellectual creation” (while a work of another
types needs to be “a unique outcome of the creative activity of the
author”). And this is language from the European Copyright Duration
Directive (Article 6: “Photographs which are original in the sense that
they are the author's own intellectual creation shall be protected in
accordance with Article 1. No other criteria shall be applied to determine
their eligibility for protection.”), so other EU countries probably have
similar legal constructions.

It might be debatable whether medical X-ray images are, in fact,
“photographs or works produced by a process similar to photography” (while
“traditional” X-ray images probably are, I would argue CT pictures are
not), and whether they are “the author’s own intellectual creation” at all.

-- [[cs:User:Mormegil | Petr Kadlec]]