Breach of copyright! - photographs

[ArtieBob]

The issue of copyright and ownership of photograph images is at best tricky. If you took the original photo and still own the negative, it is pretty clear that you legally own it, unless you published that photo, sold a print or negative, let someone make a copy negative, etc. In all the latter instances, it is not so clear, it depends on the caveats attached to the permission, sale, etc. Just because an image is published in a copyrighted book does not mean that the copyright holder has ownership or the exclusive copyright for a particular image. For example, many Luftwaffe photos in the USA originated from either government sources or captured documents. In either case, they are almost always considered in the public domain, and do not require permission to publish, but should be given source credit. Many times these photos are credited to “collection of ….”, which is easy but in many cases, incorrect. Publishing first or owning the print used for publishing does not in this case give exclusive ownership of images in the public domain.
There are certainly many, many cases of outright pirating on the internet and publishing with copyrighting of images incorrectly credited. But, IMHO, before I would accuse someone of such violations, it would seem that I had a very clear understanding of the origin and provenance of the material in question. I have been slowly trying to write a book on the Ju 88. Currently, the book effort is the process of cataloging about 4000 Ju 88 images in order to select and obtain permission to include in the book , which will be copyrighted. I will still not “own” all those images.

Best regards,

Artie Bob