Randy,

The question concerned copyright. Clearly the person who took the photos owns the copyright to those specific photos. Since the museum allows photography by visitors then there is explicit permission to photograph. It is a point of argument whether the posting of a visitor's photos in this instance is a "derivative work" as they can easily be seen as documentation of the exhibit and not a derived work. Here is a link from the US Coopyright office on the definition of derivative works: http://www.copyright.gov/circs/circ14.html

The rights of the owners of the property in this instance are complex. The labels are writing but they could stand close to the ground of "phrases" and as such are not covered by copyright (ideas, names, and phrases are not covered by copyright -they can be covered by trademark law). Some of the objects are owned by the museum and some are not as they are on loan. So I don't know if someone can represent the property here as a whole. Also there is a standard of the said property being identifiable with the owner - and that standard may not be met in this instance as well, or parts of it may and parts may not. Still, the copyright still stands for the photographs, the issue of property rights is a separate legal issue that may pertian and control part of the use of the photos but not who owns them.

On another part of this someone asked about a conservator's point of view about photography and collections. Flash photography creates a very powerful light source of very small duration. But since all light and time of exposure are cumulative in terms of light damage that is a concern. We like to be able to know the energy that is hitting the objects and its duration - if museum lighting is the only source of light then a conservator has a predictable model for calculating the rotation of light sensitive objects and collections. I also think that the larger issues in allowing photography involve respecting the objects and the museum experience and protecting that. Also it has security implications if visitors are allowed to photograph rooms and objects, etc. Having been in great museums like the Metropolitan in New York and seeing people using cell phone cameras and small digital flash cameras was certainly disruptive of the environment and experience.

Cheers!
Dave

David Harvey
Conservator
Los Angeles, CA


On Sun, Jun 15, 2008 at 5:50 PM, Randy Little <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
David that doesn't cover the rights of property owners as it pertains to the use of photography to create derivative works. 

On Sun, Jun 15, 2008 at 4:45 PM, David Harvey <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
Adrienne,

This web site from the American Society of Media Photographers (ASMP) covers copyright for photographers in detail.

http://www.asmp.org/commerce/legal/copyright/

Cheers!
Dave

David Harvey
Conservator
Los Angeles, CA


On Sun, Jun 15, 2008 at 4:16 PM, Adrienne DeAngelis <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
 Ahhh, this to-do reminds my of the declaration, some years ago, of the
Italian gov't that you can't take photos of ANYTHING in Italy without
their permission. Strangely, I have yet to read about mass bustings of
turisti con macchine di fotografia for snapping, say, the Palazzo
Vecchio.
 As for the U.S., wasn't there a little Supreme Court decision in this area?
 I did ask a question about copyright--any responses?

 Adrienne DeAngelis, Editor
 Resources in Art History for Graduate Students
 (http://www.efn.org/~acd/resources.html)

On Sun, June 15, 2008 3:06 pm, Barbara Hass wrote:
> Here is the web site of the person who posted travel photos on Flickr
> which includes one exterior photo of the Japanese-American Museum but also
> others of the 'Denver Art museum, Disney and places in DC -
> _http://www.flickr.com/photos/sneakysnap/144855733/_
> (http://www.flickr.com/photos/sneakysnap/144855733/)
>
>
> Note the posting name of the person is      sneakysnap (WELL AT LEAST
THIS PERSON HAS MADE A CONFESSION!!!)
> These were uploaded in 2006.
> -----------------

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--
Randy S. Little
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