Dear Mr. Baron:   this is a very interesting situation you hypothetically
bring up.   I am not a copyright expert, but in the case of a stolen piece
of art (or whatever), wouldn't the desire and interest in recovering the
item (from both the museum's and artist's perspective)  override possible
database copyright difficulties? In trying to recover stolen goods by
posting the information on a specialized database, there is no motive for
financial gain, only the desire to recover the item.   These are my
thoughts only.  I would like to find out what the law actually says.  Does
anyone know?

Arlyn Danielson


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From:   Robert A. Baron[SMTP:[log in to unmask]]
Sent:   Thursday, August 28, 1997 10:22 PM
To:     [log in to unmask]
Subject:        Stolen art and copyright

At 03:54 AM 8/25/97 GMT, you wrote:
>Some of you may have read previous messages from me on this subject --
>
>I am writing a law review article on searching for stolen art/antiquities
>on the internet. Previous responses to my postings have offered tremendous
>on-line resources, but I wonder if anyone can help with a more historical
>perspective -- how did you handle searching for your stolen
>art/antiquities prior to the internet. Anecdotes are welcome, and
>attribution given!
>
>Thanks in advance for the help!
>
>Laura McFarland-Taylor
>The John Marshall Law School
>[log in to unmask]
>
Here is a hypothetical question regarding stolen art and copyright:

A work of art, under copyright, is stolen from a museum which owns the
object, but not the rights of reproduction.  Might the copyright holder
successfully claim infringement if the object owner places reproductions of
the stolen work on the various databases and lists maintained to help
identify and find stolen works?

I see nothing in the "fair use" provisions of the U.S. copyright law which
might apply here.  Normally copies of such works are allowed for "internal"
object management and insurance; but public databases of stolen art,
especially if placed on the Web, may be thrown into the same basket of
infringing usages as public dababases of artworks that are not stolen.

Robert Baron
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