Ashley, I developed and teach an online course on "Copyright and Intellectual Property 101 for Museums". (I'll be teaching it again in May). Copyright belongs to the creator of the photo or their heirs or if the photo was done by an employee or contractor as a work for hire then it belongs to the individual or company who commissioned the work. Just because you own a photo, or a painting, book, or sculpture does not mean you own copyright - you only own it as property. "The duration of *copyright* in these works is generally computed the same way as for works created on or after January 1, 1978: life plus 70 years or 95 or 120 years, depending on the nature of authorship. However, all works in this category are guaranteed at least 25 years of statutory protection." For copyrights before 1978 there was a requirement that copyright started upon publication. That was dropped in tge 1978 legislation to copyright automatically being in force when the work is rendered into a tangible form. So, most historic photos before 1923 are probably in the public domain and anyone can use them. What museums do control is access to the original photos. It has been a common practice amomg museums to copyright the photos they take of objects, art, photos, etc. that are in the public domain. So, as long as the museum is using their own photos of the historic photos, then they have copyright to the new images but not the old ones. Museums also own the copyright to the content of their exhibitions. But, just remember, no one can copyright facts, words, slogans, or concepts. So your director is right in that the museum does hold copyright over the exhibition panels that it creates. You cannot stop Fair Use of any photos or use of those photos. Fair Use means that use is permitted for satire and parody, criticism and commentary, journalism, and some educational uses. If the use is personal (such as on youtube or social media) and / or transformative, and non-commercial, it is likely Fair Use. So people along the bike path make take photos and post them online. Since they are on and intended for public display you aren't probably going to win a copyright case on that. If someone takes photos and reproduces your exhibit panels for sale - that's a more likely case. So my advice is to go ahead and put the copyright notice on the panels, but chill out about it because the risk of a real copyright case is very minimal. (By the way, copyright is created when you create the work in a tangible form, but you don't have the right to bring court action unless you register the work with the copyright office). Cheers! Dave David Harvey Senior Conservator & Museum Consultant Los Angeles, CA USA www.cityofangelsconservation.weebly.com On Fri, Mar 23, 2018, 12:51 PM Ashley LaVigne <[log in to unmask]> wrote: > Hello everyone. I have a question re: copyright. Our museum displays > historic photographs in townships across our county and we were recently > asked to help create tour kiosks along a bike trail. These will contain > roughly 100 images. My director is adamant we now place a copyright tag on > every single image, including the ones we will print and mount in our > gallery displays. I think these look tacky and take away from the images, > but he is convinced people will steal these images and reproduce our images > for their own use/financial gain--thus saying we might as well not even > house photos in our collection or sell them because everyone will have > them. I personally think this is a bit dramatic. I was under the > understanding that these photos are copyrighted regardless, and that > ownership would have to be proven should we find someone reproducing our > images anyway? > > Can anyone offer advice so when the subject arises again I can understand > it better? I have been reading copyright laws, but I guess I need something > laid out in a way I can easily understand. > > Please feel free to contact me off list. > > Thank you! > > Best, > > Ashley LaVigne > > ========================================================= > Important Subscriber Information: > > The Museum-L FAQ file is located at > http://www.finalchapter.com/museum-l-faq/ . You may obtain detailed > information about the listserv commands by sending a one line e-mail > message to [log in to unmask] . The body of the message should > read "help" (without the quotes). > > If you decide to leave Museum-L, please send a one line e-mail message to > [log in to unmask] . The body of the message should read > "Signoff Museum-L" (without the quotes). > > ========================================================= Important Subscriber Information: The Museum-L FAQ file is located at http://www.finalchapter.com/museum-l-faq/ . 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