[Sca-cooks] NPR Segment on Copyright infringement

[Elaine Koogler]

On Thu, Nov 25, 2010 at 5:00 PM, James Prescott <prescotj at telusplanet.net>wrote:

<snippage>

>
> To go back to an earlier topic, a photograph of an old painting (which
> is itself out of copyright) is in another fuzzy area for which there is
> not much case law.  To the extent that the judge decides that taking the
> photograph required some significant amount of creativity, the photograph
> might be protected by copyright.  If the judge decides that there was no
> meaningful amount of creativity embodied in the photograph, then the
> photograph is not protected by copyright.  See for example (in the US)
> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bridgeman_Art_Library_v._Corel_Corp.
>
> This topic also brings up the question of whether or not all photographs
> of the original painting would necessarily be (nearly) identical, in
> which case there might not be copyright even if the effort required to
> make the photograph was be considerable (parallel situation as for
> translations from old French).
>
> This area is much fuzzier than recipes, in part because the owners of
> the old paintings are sometimes trying to get many of the benefits of
> being the copyright holder (which they are not) out of simply owning
> the painting.  (Hot button alert).
>

In this case, you should err on the side of caution.  Generally, if the
artifact (painting, sculpture, tool, whatever) is in a museum or someone's
collection other than yours, and you use a photo of that object, (again
according to the SCA lawyers), you would need permission of the owner of the
artifact, along with a release from whomever took the photograph.  I did get
clearance on the ownership issue for an upcoming issue that has photos of
features of period houses.  I was told that, as it is unlikely that the
specific location of, say, a cornice could be determined...and as the
cornice was probably pretty generic to that building style, the owner of the
building's permission was not required...only from the photographer.

Yeah, it is complicated...so you should always be very conservative on this
issue...never take anything for granted.  And if you have a question, ask
someone who is knowledgeable.

Kiri

>
>
> --
"It is only with the heart that one can see clearly; what is essential is
invisible to the eye."
--Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, The Little Prince