Breach of copyright! - photographs

[peter ewbank]

I agree it would be useful to have a compilation of copyright laws country-by-country. What I would find very useful is a list of the old photo archives and a list of who now owns who. In addition to the old negatives and slides I have collected, I also have a huge number of photos with stamps on the back. Here's a sample of a few of them - "Photo by M. Olmstead", "Weltbild GmbH" "Fotosiegel, Ulm-Donau".

Whenever I am contacted by the person who held the camera or who has had copyright transfered to them by the person who held the camera then I oblige by not making new photo prints even in cases where I have a 1940s negative or slide because ownership of an old negative does not automatically serve to transfer copyright or intellectual property rights (putting US public domain completely to one side).

Many of you will think this a tongue in cheek response, but I trust that everyone will appreciate the practical side of this issue.

I also sell manuals and blueprints on CD on eBay. In most cases I have produced each CD from the original book in my collection. In all other cases I have searched out whoever digitised the material and got their permission. The most recent example of this are the P-51 Blueprints on CD sold on behalf of Flug Werk GmbH. I am also acting to protect this item from piracy on this organisation's behalf and also to help in terms of evidence against a particularly pernicious group of pirates operating on eBay.

All of the CD items are new copyrights on the restored and edited original art-work (NOT the original engineering design), since sufficient work has been done to each document to serve to create new intellectual property.

Many of these are branded items protected by trade mark registration. As could be expected I am obliged to respect Brand XX's wishes re its brand.

The internet is a useful information tool, but it can be used for disinformation as well. Information transferred on the internet can help people shape their opinion. Reputations can be enhanced or destroyed depending on personal predeliction.

My thanks to those members of this forum who have alerted me to the start of this thread on 12 o'clock high.