At 09:04 AM 6/2/97 -0400, J.Morris wrote:

>I am in the process of evaluating and recording our museum's photographic
>collection.  As I work on this, the same question keeps coming to mind:
>Does my museum truely own this image for display?  Most of our collection
>dates from 1850 to 1940's, detailing maritime and town activities.  But we
>only hold the photograph, not the negative.  In most cases, the photographs
>were donated as part of an individual donor's collection, it was not
>donated by the photographer who actually took and owned the photograph.

As I understand it, there can be no prohibition in the US against the
display of photographs, posters, books, works of art, etc. that you own.
You are, however prohibited from reproducing them if they are still under
copyright.

There are guides to help you determine when a work is in the Public Domain,
one of these (a chart) by Laura Gassaway, can be found by following the
path to it on Chris Sundt's web page:
http://oregon.uoregon.edu/~csundt/cweb.htm

Naturally, the only advice in these matters you should take is from an
attorney whom you have hired.


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Robert A. Baron (mailto:[log in to unmask])
Guest Editor, Visual Resources:
"Copyright and Fair Use: The Great Image Debate"
For table of contents see:
http://oregon.uoregon.edu/~csundt/vrcfu.htm
================================================