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Re: copyright question -specific



Barbara,

Having had some experience with dealing with family photos and copyright, I would recommend taking a look at the publications' own credit statements for the photographs.  The fact that the photos have been used in many other publications, as you attested to, leads me to think that the publication you want to scan from does NOT own the copyright to those pictures.

It is the creator of the photograph who owns the copyright and while for family photos, that *may* be a family member, it may not. (It could be a studio or some place else.)  It is highly unlikely that the photos are in the "public domain"; contacting the family is probably your safest option.  

Of course, the family itself may not know who took the picture, but if you get written authorization from them to publish the photo, then at least you can used the credit line, "Courtesy of <family name>" (as opposed to "Reproduced with permission of <creator>".  This would imply the actual creator is unknown but the next closest who can vouch for them is giving permission.  You can also use a disclaimer statement as well.

Gregory Pike
Digital Archivist
Joshua Lederberg Papers
National Library of Medicine
pikeg@mail.nlm.nih.gov

>>> ware <ware@LUNA.CAS.USF.EDU> 02/29/00 11:22AM >>>
We are in the process of publishing a book.  The author has given us a list of
photographs he wants included.  Many are old family photos that have been
utilized in other publications.

Our question is, can the photos be scanned out of the publication and used,
since they appear to be "public domain" or do we need to get in touch with the
original owner of the photo?  We would have no problem getting permits from
the publications.

Barbara Ware
The Tampa Bay History Center
ware@luna.cas.usf.edu 
thistory@gte.net 

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