[Andreas Brekken]

Hi, all

As Artie Bob states, this issue is at best troublesome, in reality VERY difficult, even for people that work in the field full time. I had to check this out some time ago for some of the photographs in my own collection.

The copyright owner of a photograph is in most countries (I have been told) one person, namely the person that held the camera. It is this persons privilige to TRANSFER this copyright to other persons and/or companies or organizations. This is typically automated if the person is an employee of for example a newspaper company, but this is part of the contract the photographer sign.

With regards to the numerous photographs taken by german personnel and/or professional photographers enroled in the german wartime military services, this is tricky, as most of the organizations of that time does no longer exist.

However, as one can see from books published during WWII, the copyright of photographs taken by most professional german photographers were copyrighted by their company (and not the military unit they were assigned to) and not the german army, navy or air force. And these companies does in fact still exist (under the same and or new company names, they might have been bought by other companies etc) as legal institutions.

So - if I buy or get a photograph from someone, where do I stand with regards to copyright? If the photographer is known, and still alive, this person can transfer his copyright to me, but I then have to get this in form of a legal document, or a release form. If not, I am not the holder of the copyright of this photo. So, even if I get the only known existing copy of a photograph from someones daughter, I cannot claim copyright as long as this is not legally transferred to me.

This theme does appear on this and other discussion boards from time to time, and it would be interesting if someone could gather information from the different countries in order to establish what is correct for the different countries, as it seems that for example Italy has a time limit on photographic copyright, and in for example Australia ALL photographs taken before January 1st 1955 is now in the public domain and has no copyright anymore.

With regards to the discussion that started this thread, in my opinion mr. Ewbank would have to establish that the copyright of these photographs has been transferred to him, and that mr Delmenhorst would have to establish that the original copyright owner is known and has refused to do so.

Could some of our german friends please tell us what the legal standings are in Germany?

Regards,
Andreas B