Steve Rooney, Gerard Perez, and especially Robert Lind have answered you quite well. Perhaps I can contribute a something here by way of a basic explanation of what copyright is, in order to help clarify your question and the answers as well. Perhaps others on the list are interested. You do not copyright anything. Copyright is not a verb. It is property: a package of legal rights belonging initially to the author or creator of a work of art, literature, etc. Copyright exists as an incentive to encourage creativity, balanced with limits to allow the public to benefit from these creative works. When a work of art is created, two things spring into being: the physical work of art, and copyright in it. These are two *separate* pieces of legally defined property. Each of these pieces of property can be sold, transferred, licensed, left to one's heirs, etc., like any other property -- separately and not neccessarily together. What does that mean? An artist can sell a painting, let's say, to a collector, and retain the copyright in it for himself (and his heirs). Or he can do precisely the opposite: he can sell the copyright to a publisher and keep the painting. Later, he can donate the painting to a museum; the publisher, of course, still owns the copyright. The publisher can license the copyright to an advertiser. You get the idea. (It used to be that in the U.S. one had to register copyright with the Copyright Office at the Library of Congress. Since the U.S. became a signator to the (international) Berne Convention on copyright, however, copyright is automatic at the moment of creation in the U.S. too.) The exception to the basic rule: in your case, the "creators" seem to have been employees of the Colonial Williamsburg Foundation (you'd better check this out; the law clearly defines what constitutes an "employee" in this connection). As Robert Lind has explained, the copyright in works created by salaried employees in the course of their employment is usually the property of the employer, who is in this case considered the creator (the initiator of the creation, if you will). Unless contracted otherwise in writing, of course. Therefore, it would seem probable that the Foundation owns (the already existing) copyright to the photographs in question (*but* n.b.: not to any others the Library or Foundation may possess which were not made by these salaried staff photographers, unless you have written transfer of copyright.) That would mean that you could license their use. (This is not legal advice, by the way. Just a conjecture based on the little information you've written.) Robert Lind has explained about the length of time this copyright is valid, before the photographs enter the public domain. By the way, knowing what a solid and veteran institution the Colonial Williamsburg Foundation is, I find it startling that you had to ask this question. Surely the matter has come up before now? Surely Colonial Williamsburg's marketing or P.R. office has had to deal with staff photographers and copyright issues? You mention "colleagues in Visual Resources" --? IMHO. Please let me know, on list or off, if I can help clarify anything further. ------------------------------------- Name: amalyah keshet director, visual resources, the israel museum, jerusalem e-mail: [log in to unmask] Date: 04/06/96 ------------------------------------- On Fri, 29 Mar 1996 14:16:00 EST Liz Ackert wrote: >This request for information is being cross-posted to Museum-L and >Libref-L. Please forward it to colleagues who may be able to assist us. >___ > >The Colonial Williamsburg Foundation Library has extensive holdings of >photographic images (in excess of 200,000). My colleagues in Visual >Resources wish to know if other museums and/or libraries copyright >individual photographic images in their collections. This question relates >especially to those images which are requested for use in periodical and >book publications. > >If your institution does copyright photographic images, it would be useful >for us to know when the application for copyright is usually initiated. Is >it at the time a contract is drawn up as part of a rights and reproductions >transaction? Or are selected images copyrighted in anticipation of their >use by other publishers? And if so, how are such decisions made. > >Please respond privately and I will summarize responses to the list. Many >thanks in advance for your consideration and assistance. > >Liz Ackert > > > > >>:> >>:> >>:> >>:> >>:> >>:> >>:> >>:> >>:> > > Liz Ackert ([log in to unmask]) > Public Services Librarian > Colonial Williamsburg Foundation Library > P.O. Box 1776 / 415 North Boundary Street > Williamsburg, VA 23187-1776 > Phone (804) 220-7419 Fax (804) 221-8902 >