Re: information regarding copyright of photographs in other countries

[Kevin L Smith <kevin.l.smith@xxxxxxxx>]

Hi Marsh and Dee,

Actually, copyright law is federal law and is therefore consistent from 
state to state.  Your colleague may be confusing copyright issues, 
governed by federal law, with privacy issues, where the laws do vary from 
state to state.

Sticking with copyright for a minute, US law gives a copyright to the 
photographer.  Unless the subject of the photograph is itself a "work of 
authorship" subject to copyright protection (like a modern artwork), the 
photographer is probably the only copyright holder. Human beings who are 
subjects of photographs do not generally have any copyright claim in the 
photo.  If these pictures were taken by your faculty member, she is 
entitled, as the copyright holder, to authorize their public display in a 
digital collection.

The three countries you mention are all members of the World Trade 
Organization; as such, they have agreed to international treaties about 
copyright.  The cornerstone of these treaties is "national treatment," 
which says that national from any WTO country is entitle to the same 
protection, in a specific country, as nationals from that country.  That 
means that in the US, we apply US copyright law for works in which a 
Chinese, Japanese of Taiwanese national has a copyright claim.  But since 
the only copyright claim in these photos is probably that held by your 
faculty member, these international provisions likely do not matter.

The privacy issue is somewhat different, but by and large if the pictures 
were taken in a public place and show public monuments, street scenes, 
etc. there is unlikely to be any difficulties with putting these photos in 
a digital repository.  Under the privacy laws of many US states, people 
who are depicted in the photos could have a privacy claim IF the photos 
revealed private facts about them, portrayed them in a "false light," or 
used their image for commercial purposes.  It sounds like the photos you 
describe do not do any of these things.

So based on your description of your project, I think you are making 
things too difficult on yourselves.  Absent some further complication not 
mentioned, I don't think there is a need to research the copyright laws of 
these three countries in order to decide to store and display these photos 
in you digital repository.

Kevin L. Smith, J.D.
Scholarly Communications Officer
Perkins Library, Duke University
PO Box 90193
Durham, NC  27708
919-668-4451
kevin.l.smith@xxxxxxxx
http://library.duke.edu/blogs/scholcomm/



"Marsha Zavar" <mlzavar@xxxxxxx> 
02/03/2010 10:18 AM

To
<digital-copyright@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
cc
"'Deanne Peterson'" <dmpeters@xxxxxxx>
Subject
information regarding copyright of photographs in other  countries






I am posting this on behalf of a colleague:

 

Hello everyone. At the present time I am working with a faculty member who
would like to put her travel photographs from China, Taiwan, and Japan in
our digital repository as part of her teaching collection. The photographs
range in subject from public parks, street scenes, festivals and signs, to
monuments and inside cultural and open air heritage sites. We are reading 
up
on copyright law for photography in the United States and see that many 
laws
differ among states. This led us to wonder about the copyright laws of 
each
country specifically relating to photography and the subject of those
photographs. 

We are looking for suggestions for publications or web sites that could
provide guidance on international copyright laws, especially for the 3
countries mentioned above. Thanks in advanced for any suggestions. 

Dee