A friend writes... (sales/copyright question)
Discussion
An old schoolchum of mine has just contacted me. He writes:
"I have recently inherited a hefty number of archive photos from my late aunt... including many and various 1st rate off screen shots of 1940-60's actors working at Rank/Elstree studios by my aunts fiance of the 1960's era, a guy who was according to my cousin a famous well known 1960's era press and film photo journalist called Jack Middleton.These include John Mills ,Stuart Granger ,Jean Simmons ,Anne Crawford amongst many interesting black and white professional look shots. Not all photos are with descriptions ,some are signed off by the actors ,but most are stated as copyright of Rank Films or Daily Mail Publications."
He doesn't want to keep them, but can he sell the ones marked copyright, or maybe do something with an image library eg National Portrait Gallery? https://www.npg.org.uk/collections/about/photograp...
"I have recently inherited a hefty number of archive photos from my late aunt... including many and various 1st rate off screen shots of 1940-60's actors working at Rank/Elstree studios by my aunts fiance of the 1960's era, a guy who was according to my cousin a famous well known 1960's era press and film photo journalist called Jack Middleton.These include John Mills ,Stuart Granger ,Jean Simmons ,Anne Crawford amongst many interesting black and white professional look shots. Not all photos are with descriptions ,some are signed off by the actors ,but most are stated as copyright of Rank Films or Daily Mail Publications."
He doesn't want to keep them, but can he sell the ones marked copyright, or maybe do something with an image library eg National Portrait Gallery? https://www.npg.org.uk/collections/about/photograp...
What an interesting haul! If they've never been published I imagine a great deal of interest in them.
As I understand it, it is the image that is copyrighted, not the physical photograph. So as long as ownership of the photographs can be proven then there wouldn't be any issue in him selling them to whoever - at which point, responsibility for adhering to copyright restrictions would pass to the new owner.
However, if the photos were never published then the copyright will have by now expired. IIRC, the limit for unpublished work is 50 years (Might actually be less than this) so the copyright passes to the legal owner of the photos.
Worth him having a mooch round here:
https://www.gov.uk/topic/intellectual-property/cop...
As I understand it, it is the image that is copyrighted, not the physical photograph. So as long as ownership of the photographs can be proven then there wouldn't be any issue in him selling them to whoever - at which point, responsibility for adhering to copyright restrictions would pass to the new owner.
However, if the photos were never published then the copyright will have by now expired. IIRC, the limit for unpublished work is 50 years (Might actually be less than this) so the copyright passes to the legal owner of the photos.
Worth him having a mooch round here:
https://www.gov.uk/topic/intellectual-property/cop...
Copyright questions are always interesting. Looks like they are time limited to 70 y (after the author's death). Presumably in those 70 years the copyright is held by the estate?
Beggarall said:
Copyright questions are always interesting. Looks like they are time limited to 70 y (after the author's death). Presumably in those 70 years the copyright is held by the estate?
It is interesting. Partly due to the fact that the only time it ever gets tested is in a court. There's no regulatory authority that administers copyright in the way that there is for Trade Marking.And you are correct that copyright passes to the estate of the author upon their death.
Some years back, we wanted to use the song 'My Old Man's a Dustmen' for a radio advert. We established the rights rested with Lonnie Donigan's estate who wanted a very large amount of money to use it. Far too much for the campaign which was a shame as I was quite pleased with the rewording I'd come up with.... "My old Man's a dustmen. He works in Kettering. He'll be coming round soon with a brand new bin for your recycle-in"
....On second thoughts
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