The Letter of the Law on Copyright

(No photographs for you!)

Link to June 29 New York Times article, "A Look Back at Canarsie, Clouded by Copyright Woes".

Excerpt:

But in April, a few weeks after Mr. Merlis first saw the picture, the historical society, citing copyright concerns, rebuffed his request to use it and a second photograph — for a fee — for use in a forthcoming book on Canarsie, pending further research. Mr. Merlis’s objections became public when he wrote a letter criticizing the decision that was published on June 12 in The Brooklyn Daily Eagle. What is the point of archiving old pictures, he argued, if people can’t use them?

But Deborah Schwartz, president of the historical society, in Brooklyn Heights, said Wednesday that the society was only trying to follow the letter of copyright law. The holders of the copyrights for the pictures — one taken around 1895 and the other in the early 20th century — are unknown, she said, and without permission from them or their estates, the photos cannot be reused for a commercial endeavor. Until, that is, they pass into the public domain, which is due to happen for the older picture in 2015, and for the newer as late as 2045.

Link to April 29, 2008, Techdirt post, "Orphan Works Legislation Would Be A Small But Important Step Toward Copyright Reform". (On which, as you might assume, opinions vary widely.)

Link to LibraryLaw.com, "Copyright and Libraries" links, arranged under the following categories:

Current Awareness
Copyright Law of Special Interest to Librarians
Library Cases (in reverse chronological order)
Legal Memos for Libraries
Library Copyright Guidelines and Articles (and a couple of webcasts)
Especially for Libraries - Copyright Resources on the Web
The Best of the Overall Copyright Resources on the Web

About LibraryLaw.com