It is important to realise that under international copyright ect.
conventions and national laws there may be very many different copyrights
in a single text or web page: to give just four examples there may be
separate copyrights of the original artist a reproduced art work, in the
photograph of that art work, in the wording of text descriptions or
captions, and in the final compilation, design (and even the typsetting)
of the page, layout etc.

Each right can be separately bought, sold and enforced, and each may have
different expiry dates, while one copyright (e.g. in a photograph of the
work of art) might still apply even if it resulted from a breach of
another copyright - e.g. the artist's.

Patrick Boylan

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On Wed, 4 Feb 1998, James E. May wrote:

> Subject: Re: image copyright policies for art museum websites
>
> I know this debate can go on and on but does the artist truly own copyright?
> Don't you have to formally apply for copyrights and isn't there a difference
> between copyright and paternity?  Putting the (c) next to your name does not
> necessarily give you legal claim to the image.
>