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Michael, If you think your use falls under Fair Use you may find the recently released document from the Visual Resources Association useful *Statement on the Fair Use of Images for Teaching, Research, and Study*. * http://www.vraweb.org/organization/pdf/VRAFairUseGuidelinesFinal.pdf*. Trish Rose-Sandler Data Analyst, Biodiversity Heritage Library Project http://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/ On Fri, Dec 9, 2011 at 1:45 PM, Beanworks <[log in to unmask]> wrote: > I think what Cary is trying to say is "welcome to the fun world of > copyright!" > > No, you shouldn't assume copyright was not renewed. You will need to > determine (1) who the copyright holder is/was and (2) whether the copyright > has lapsed. This is not always an easy task, which is why you need to > document your good faith efforts (which will, of course, be exhaustive). > > Carol > > On Dec 9, 2011, at 2:26 PM, Cary Gordon <[log in to unmask]> wrote: > > > 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 >