Patrick:

Regarding UK copyright law: perhaps you can enlighten us regarding the 1996
Duration of Copyright Regulations, which apparently introduced a new right called

the Publication Right. I quote from Michael Flint, Copyright in Images, Bulletin
66 of the Association of Art Historians:

"This is of particular importance to musicians and public galleries. It gives to
the owners of objects embodying copyright works (e.g. manuscripts, drawings,
etc.) in which copyright has expired, the right to publish the work for a period
of 25 years from the end of the year in which the work is first published. It is
a right similar to copyright. Note that in order to qualify, a work must no
longer be under copyright protection, and must have been previously
unpublished... There is some ambiguity as to whether or not a work which has been

exhibited in public is in fact "unpublished."...The better view is probably that
the exhibition of works to the public does constitute publication from the
viewpoint of deciding whether or not the work is unpublished for the purposes of
publication right."

Flint goes on to point out, interestingly, "Thus, if a watercolour sketch by JMW
Turner is discovered in a museum's collection, and has never been published, the
museum can publish it and will be the owner of the publication right in the
sketch for 25 years..." and can thus exploit this "useful source of revenue."

Are you familiar with this additional right?

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amalyah keshet
head of visual resources, the israel museum, jerusalem
e-mail: [log in to unmask]
date: 11/24/97
visit our web site at http://www.imj.org.il
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