I'm not a lawyer, however my understanding is:

In the UK (and probably throughout the European Union) the situation would be that the visitor owned the physical photograph and owned copyright in the photograph.  

However visitors are usually admitted to museums under terms and conditions.  These may include the conditions under which they can take photographs and how they can use any photographs.   These conditions may be displayed in the museum or printed on the back of tickets etc., but they may not have to be displayed (local laws will define whether or not they have to be displayed).  Often these terms and conditions will say something like "photographs may be taken only for personal use or private research".  By taking photographs when these conditions apply your colleague will have essentially entered into a contract/agreement only to use them for the permitted purposes.

Bear in mind that the contract/agreement will be entered into under the laws of the place where the museum is situated.  In Europe many state (including local government) institutions are able to make regulations or bylaws which have the force of law and like all laws ignorance of them won't be a defence.

So essentially the issue is not copyright but the terms and conditions under which the photographs were permitted to be taken.

The publishers lawyers are the people best placed to provide advise on what permissions are required.

Trevor Reynolds, Registrar
English Heritage, 37 Tanner Row, York, YO1 6WP
+44 (0) 1904 601905
________________________________________
From: Museum discussion list [[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Nina Simon [[log in to unmask]]
Sent: 31 December 2009 14:34
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Do visitors own the photos they take (legally) in museums?

Legal buffs,

I was contacted by an academic colleague who is writing a book and illustrating it with photographs he has taken (following then-current photography policies) at museums throughout Europe. He is now being asked by those institutions for royalty fees (see below for his full message). It was my understanding that if you take photographs in a museum legally, you own your creations and do not have to submit to fees.

Are these museums fleecing him, or are they in the right?

Over the years I've taken a lot of photographs in European museums. All of them were taken quite legally and no one asked me to sign anything. The only restriction was on using flash which is reasonable.

Now I have just completed a book on world religions for which the publisher asked me to provide 300 images - one every two pages. Fortunately, I have enough photos to do this, but I also discovered that using my museum photos is questionable.

In fact when I wrote to one museum to keep them informed they told me that I would have to pay $150 to use a photograph I had taken fifteen years ago of a six hundred year old Buddha.

While I don't mind making a donation I simply cannot afford to pay this sort of fee - my royalties will be a few thousand dollars unless by some unlikly chance the book became a best seller. So I have to think twice about paying anything. Besides, as far as I can see I am doing them a favor publicizing their collections.

Please can you comment and perhaps point me in the right direction for clarification on the legal issues.


Nina Simon
Museum 2.0 - www.museumtwo.com<http://www.museumtwo.com>

831.331.5460
[log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]>
1040 Mystery Spot Road
Santa Cruz, CA 95065
skype, twitter, yahooIM, flickr, facebook: ninaksimon


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