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.

[Pilot]

Very interesting disscusion. I have consulted some few months ago some genltemens, most from USA and one from Holland, which are much more informed about the protection and international low. My basic interest was to take some extract from book published in 1919 and publish it on web. Free. Info I have found out the 70 years after the death of the author and if any other does not claim ownership over the publication this subject became public domain.

After the reading of this two page of various comment I have turn off PC and take just to overview on the many of the books I have. Best books are result of the many years study and the authros are visited, interview many of the surviving crew and their families. And collect their images and published here. Could this be possible to do with official images? Answer is simply- I have take and watch the date of publishing and from separate folder take various informational leflets I have get from various archive. So if you are going to use images from IWM you should ay at least 22 BP if the image is going to be published in magazine. Other charges is much higher. Bundsarchiv make charge in that time in regards to how many prints are going to be published and you could not take and release under the charge of some 104 DM. Now take any book or agazine, count the number of the images and see how much this cost? Answer is simple- we would not have today that much publication in the past.

In this way personal albums and search are important. And there should be determined- Copyright and Right. If somebody get image from grandson of the German WW1 fighter pilot could it use it? How to found out who make image? How many years to spent to found out that? And there is other solution- if on the image is many people presented this could mean that all of tem have a sample of image and maybe this sample is preserved until today. Copyright or Right? I think all of them have right to use it.

Many of images was once before released as Public Domain or Free Press Sample. Just some time ago I have place of this forum image of the Dornier Do215 which have been released before the war as free press release. I am sure that negative is still preserved and maybe Dornier or Bundesarchiv have it and can claim all right reserved but- Free Relesae is Free relase and all of this can be free used. If you order print now I am sure that you will be charged.

Only you can be sure that you have total ownership oer the image if you have made it. If not there will be always problem. Even if you have original, taken from veteran or buy on ebay, you could be faced with problem. Problem could be made by other resachers or Institution. As I can reusme from the many years of previous contact authors never have a problem with Institution [ if they use original from other source] but always have problem with other authors. So there is one term used by many of reseachers and authors:

"Publish and be damned"

Please don't take this moto as recomenation but just to show to you how the deep problem is.

Modern problem- if you get scan of original image and the scan is in the high resolution, do you have right to use it. Some publications accept it as original. But many does not care at all. Also one more problem- original black and white can be with easy converted by image editing software into the color. And this is then something new and open new gate to abuse Copyright and Rights over the original ownership. Good thing that in the moment I don't know any publisher who would accept that kind of "work" for the release in press. I hope that this will stay like this.

And what I know and what I am sure? I am sure that the there is protection over the images but this protection is for sure much more under the level how the protection is strong for the art work. Try to reroduce any art [ no matter is this da Vinci or the art made by Skyraider] you will be faced with the brutal low and court will have no mercy. In this way I am deeply sorry that one gentlemen here was stated just some time ago that his art was used without his permission!!!

What I will do? Be sure that I have no time machine and I could not back in time and collect directly couple thousand of old images I have in my collection. But this topic re-open some critical problem so in future I will use all I have collected for my own purpose and my own risk and would not forward any copy and risk to any other. Simly words- nobody would ever get anything from me. Until the things don't become clear.

To illustrate this problem I have attached three images and one color art I have in collection- recolored image of Werner Voss Fokker Trpilane, tail gun of He111, Gloster Schneider Trophy racer and my color profile. I am 100% sure that art is mine