Copyright on magazine photo content

A client walked in or door recently with two photos of American Indian chiefs - Sitting Bull and Red Cloud - that he wanted scanned and enlarged. The photos were on pages from an old magazine and, after initially thinking "oh no, this is going to be a lousy job" my wife did a great job and we, and the client, were really impressed to the extent that that I considered putting them on ebay.
Obvious questiion, does anyone know the ramifications of using magazine photo or illustration content? I have previously sold posters of a hifi related item that appeared n the 70s with success and there is so much good, but forgotten,stuff out there. Old style soap ads is another one that we were asked about recently, the job hasn't materialized as yet but if it does where do we stand over using whatever we, or the client can lay our hands on? I am referringt to using old, virtually historical content from probably 40 plus years ago.

Thanks,

Hal55

A quick google search came up with this:
The Library of Congress makes this clear, stating that "Works
copyrighted before 1923 are now in the public domain". This (and more
information) can be found in their slickly titled "Copyright and Other
Restrictions Which Apply to Publication and Other Forms of
Distribution of Images: Sources for Information":

http://www.loc.gov/rr/​print/195_copr.html

If you think the work was created after that (between 1923 and 1964,
when new legislation came into force) then you have a rather tougher
situation on your hands. You must take steps to trace the original
copyright holder. This is a long, hard, and not particularly pleasant
road to journey on, and the difficulty probably outweighs the reward!
The information is available here:

http://www.loc.gov/cop​yright/circs/circ22.ht​ml

But isn't it possible that a work that was captured/copyrighted in the past can have that copyright renewed by, say, a family member?

In other words, before submitting a work like that for commercial use, you'd best contact someone with legal copyright knowledge!

Be careful.
Someone recently used a famous New York photographers shot as the basis for a drawing for a CD cover.
That photographer found out and filed a lawsuit, claiming that CD cover was derived from his photo.
They settled for $35K. Ouch.

My best advice? Never do that again.

Sitting Bull lived 1831-1890 and Red Cloud 1822-1909. Clearly the photographer or any of those involved in commissioning the photos have now passed so, as stated by bdpaco, it makes sense no copyright now exists over those images. The hifi item I referred to is the 300B vacuum tube (valve) that went back into production in the early 70s and a really nice retro syle ad went in the hifi press celebrating the fact. It makes a great retro poster for hifi nuts and I doubt that anyone at the electronics conglomerate that commissioned it would have a clue about it today. I suppose I could contact them but I really doubt anyone therenow would know what a 300B valve was let alone be bothered checking thru their records to see if they still owned the copyright. Frustrating - does copyright ever just "lapse" on advertising material if it is no longer used? I've been to plenty of craft shows and markets where people are merrily selling retro posters.

Hal55

Actually, copyrights can go over 100 years beyond the author's life.

Hang on a mo ~ the original photographs of the Native American Chiefs may be pre 1920 but you said your client brought you in a magazine to copy from, surely there is the potential for some vested interest in the "copyright owners" of said magazine??? Which is perhaps more likely to be less than 100 years old???

Surely copyright can be transferred to another family member or business (magazine company for instance) etc. ??

It will probably depend on the country though.


I think you need to seek professional advice about this rather than rely on 'best-guesses' and personal opinion from a forum

NinetyEight wrote in post #12808492
Surely copyright can be transferred to another family member or business (magazine company for instance) etc. ??

It will probably depend on the country though.

I think you need to seek professional advice about this rather than rely on 'best-guesses' and personal opinion from a forum

http://en.wikipedia.or​g …tries%27_copyri​ght_length

The copyright you would be violating would not be the copyright on the tube itself, but rather on the photograph of it. If it was photographed in the '70s it is safe to assume that the copyright is still active and any use of it would be piracy.

Looks like Afghanistan is the place to be then!

NinetyEight wrote in post #12808561
Looks like Afghanistan is the place to be then!

I've heard that posters of Indian chiefs go like hot pita in the bazaar in Kandahar.