[Wikipedia-l] Copyright and web cams

[tarquin]

Ray Saintonge wrote:

> I was looking for supplementary material regarding the [[Quetzal]] 
> article, and ended up with a copyright question.
>
> An organization maintains a web-cam in front of a hummingbird feeder 
> in Costa Rica.  Most of the time there are no visitors to the feeder.  
> On one occasion I find a great specimen has come to feed, and I save 
> the picture.  Although the owner of the web-cam maintains an archive, 
> I have made a point not to use an archived picture. 
> The question:  Does the owner of the web cam have any copyright claim 
> on the picture that I have downloaded?  I suspect not, because he made 
> no creative effort to shoot that particular picture.  I would be 
> interested in other opinions.


I think it all depends on how we envisage a webcam. Is it:
1) a constant stream of images, like a film, which is being broadcast in 
realtime?
or
2) a remote camera which is always switched on?

If it's 1) then it's all copyright. The same way that time-speeded film 
in natural history programmes is all copyright, even though they just 
set the camera up and left it running for days without touching it.
If it's 2) then copying a picture from it is just like borrowing a 
strager's camera to take a picture.

I think we need a lawyer on this one! It might well be uncharted territory.



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