Old Photograph Copyrights

I have agreed to assist a local historical society in archiving their vast collection of photographs. I will be scanning the prints, retouching them, and adding keywords for searchability in the future.

My question pertains to the copyrights of these photographs. Part of what they want me to do is establish an online service which would facilitate the ordering of prints from the scans that I am making.

The society is always being contacted by individuals looking for copies of photographs of their relatives, or locations in the area...etc. My vision is an online utility that allows individuals to search through the image archives and order prints from the photographs.

What copyright issues am I going to run into? 95% of these images were personal "snapshots" donated to the society by members of the community. The remaining 5% are either from unknown origins or were donated by businesses in the area. Nearly all of them have a snapshot quality that make it obvious they were not professionally created. However, there are a few that were clearly posed, formal, family portraits that were commissioned at some point in history.

Help? Thoughts? Advice?

Try contacting the San Diego Historical Society. They do just exactly what you are talking about.

Issues, potentially a lot.

First, for scanning, touching up and posting on the web, you don't get any kind of copyright.

The REAL copyright belongs to the person who snapped the picture. They cannot surrender it into the "public domain" except in writing. I'm pretty sure that has never been done. The only way you can transfer the copyright is in writing. I'm sure when the photos were donated they never transfered the copyright to the historical society. More than likely those who donated them NEVER had the copyright to transfer in the first place............

I'm also pretty sure NOBODY registered the copyright since it took more effort back then and who is going to do that on "snapshots". Hence the damages, if any, if they could be proved, would be small.

If the photos are over 50 years old, there pretty much isn't a copyright if they are not registered. Currently copyrights expire 70 yeas after the death of the copyright holder.

Chances are if you post them, nobody is going to give you ay real world problems. If they have a problem, take the picture down.

Mark H