Copyright law requires that you make a good-faith effort to find the
copyright owners. If you document such effort and they sue you, this
can weigh heavily in your favor. There are two obvious caveats: a) You
can still get sued, not to mention annoying cease-and-desist letters;
and 2) They could still win.
Being that we are, for the most part, not art critics, you could
consider creating original art. You might get mocked, particularly
after a few beers, but that's just the way we roll. Of course, if you
buy beer, that will reduce any mock risk.
Cary
On Fri, Dec 9, 2011 at 12:34 PM, Doran, Michael D <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
> I was hoping to re-use/re-purpose a couple of 1962 Seattle World's Fair images found on the interwebs [1][2]. Both images were originally created for souvenir decals.
>
> According to the U.S. Copyright Office's "Copyrights Basics" [3] section on works originally created and published or registered before January 1, 1978, "copyright endured for a first term of 28 years from the date it was secured" -- i.e. for these images, from 1962 to 1990. It goes on to say that "During the last (28th) year of the first term, the copyright was eligible for renewal." This however, was *not* an automatic renewal.
>
> So, unless the copyright was explicitly renewed in 1990, the images are in the public domain. Since these images were for souvenir decals (rather than something like a poster), I'm inclined to think the original copyright owner probably didn't renew the copyright. However, I don't know who the original copyright owner is and really have no way of finding out, and therefore I can't ascertain whether or not the copyright was renewed.
>
> For those with more experience in copyright, any thoughts regarding situations like this?
>
> I realize this isn't a coding question, but figured I might get some helpful responses from those of y'all working in archives and various digital projects where copyright issues regularly come up.
>
> ps I've eliminated the "Century 21 Exposition" logo in my proposed reuse, if that matters (on one image, there is a registered trademark symbol next to the logo). I'm also not retaining the original "Seattle World's Fair" text.
>
> -- Michael
>
> [1] http://www.flickr.com/photos/hollywoodplace/6007390480/
>
> [2] http://media.photobucket.com/image/seattle%20world%2527s%20fair%20monorail/bananaphone5000/NEWGORILLA/SeattleWFDecal.jpg
>
> [3] http://www.copyright.gov/circs/circ1.pdf
>
> # Michael Doran, Systems Librarian
> # University of Texas at Arlington
> # 817-272-5326 office
> # 817-688-1926 mobile
> # [log in to unmask]
> # http://rocky.uta.edu/doran/
--
Cary Gordon
The Cherry Hill Company
http://chillco.com
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