Public Domain question
I have at time shown some of my very old pictures here and which were supposedly lost when my computer decided to deep six itself.
My daughter called today to tell me that she had seen some of them published by doing a Google search for them. Sure enough I have been able to find these pictures myself and so the question; I never did a copy write on any of them and so wonder if by publishing them publicly they do not belong inthe publicdomain I hasten to add here that I really do not care since I have been able to recover most of them but was wondering about this.
Answers, comments, anyone? Please. Thanks!
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The minute you take the photo you have copyright. If people use them for non financial gain it's allowed but if they use it to make money etc you can go after them. Let me see if I can find the link I got for an article a few weeks back. It was really good regarding copyright and photography. I have a friend who is a professional photographer and he finds all these great articles!
Here is the link!
Thanks a lot for the info. I was on a fishing expedition because I always thought that you had to formally copy write these things, as we did for my Dad flood pictures, so many years ago. As a photographer, I'm a good shoe maker and if someone finds that my pictures are that good I take it as a compliment. My Dad's life long passion was photography but he was not in the business just had a passion for it and it really showed. Thanks again!!
Right now, seeing what I have today, I'm going to try and find my flood pictures too!
As incredible as it seems, I never even gave this a thought about doing until today, I Googled Flood Winsted 1955 and there they were all of the pictures taken by my Dad and I. I had given the originals and negatives and plates to the state in memory of my Dad. 90% of all these pictures were taken by either he or I and he did the development and printing of them in his personal dark room in his cellar. Man do I remember doing that. Talk about tedious. He had a booklet published and all of the proceeds were given over to the town to help with the costs of reconstruction. He had copyrights on all of them and sold oneof the pictures that showed the devastation to one of the apartment buildings in town. Made worldwide head lines at the time. Now I'm going to make copies for my personal historical records for my daughter. Next project up for the old manas soon as I figure out just how to do it with this new system!
Thanks Suz, because I had A Mac in mind when I floated the question. Strangerthanfiction , pretty much answered it but I hope that A Mac weighs in with his opinion too. Have great respect for him. tsula
Soosalah (Suz) , I don't know where you are going with this, forgive me. This was in Winsted, Ct where I spent most of my life after our wanderings.Whole different story. If you find a picture of the Nader Block, this is where I lived for3 years starting in 1927.Most of those pictures were taken either by my Father, or I, during and after the storm. Wikipedia often relies upon questionable sources from people who were not actually there as we were. At this late stage in my life I owe no explanations to anyone for facts as I lived them. Would you now please explain what you expected of me, here? I might add that I have no link to my personal history other than an unflagging memory which you may accept or reject at your will!!
My pleasure! On my website I do copyright the images now anyway but it is great to know that if someone tries to profit from your work or use it in non flattering ways you have some protection.
Wow if those Black and Whites if the images on google images are the ones you are talking about. There are some great and wild shots!
Strangerthanfiction , It is more that obvious now that I truly am a dinosaur out of time and in the wrong place at the wrong time. I could no more take and use someone else's handiwork for personalgain! Even to have an inference to such a thing is personally so repulsive that I can't even begin to describemy feelings about such a thing.
You have been more than kind to me and I truly appreciate your guidance. I am now well past the time of roaming the hills for pictures so the idea of copy writehas become moot! Be well.
They were a couple of wild and crazy days and nights, too. Particularly after we lost power. This was not a hurricane in that sense of the word as we here in Florida know. This was a rain storm of Biblical proportions. I went through some pretty wild storms in the South Pacific but the way this was raining made them look like drizzles. My Dad had invented a special camera tripod where he had a 35 MM slide, a Kodak Box, and a newsman's camera all mounted side by side. When he tripped the shutter, this gizmo made all 3 cameras take exactly the same shot. My job was to carry that dumb thing all over town and set it up for him. I had my camera, a Kodak Tourist flip out,along so I could take shots of the areas from different perspectives.I have to say though that once again, after of these years, it is disconcerting to have our actions questioned. Particularly since the thought of personal gain from that catastrophe never entered either of our minds, then or now. I will confess that the overhead shot of the YMCA was not taken by either of us. It was taken by a friend named John Carter who had and flew an open cockpit plane and that was his picture.
They were a couple of wild and crazy days and nights, too. Particularly after we lost power. This was not a hurricane in that sense of the word as we here in Florida know. This was a rain storm of Biblical proportions. I went through some pretty wild storms in the South Pacific but the way this was raining made them look like drizzles. My Dad had invented a special camera tripod where he had a 35 MM slide, a Kodak Box, and a newsman's camera all mounted side by side. When he tripped the shutter, this gizmo made all 3 cameras take exactly the same shot. My job was to carry that dumb thing all over town and set it up for him. I had my camera, a Kodak Tourist flip out,along so I could take shots of the areas from different perspectives.
Copyright Laws changed in the late '70's intellectual property you created makes you the copyrights holder, BUT, when you place an image i.e. in cyberspace, it's important that, either overprinted on the image itself and/or somewhere in close proximity to its placement, you indicate Your Name/All Rights Reserved/Date.
Technically, even if you neglect to do so, your image should not be used without tour written consent. But be aware, even when you indicate your copyrights, there's no guarantee that someone won't pirate your work; it is "copyright infringement" to do so, and even if your image is modified by the "pirate," that is known as a "derivative" and it still constitutes "infringement."
Intellectual property is not public domain until 70 years after a copyright is established, or, if if/when the owner stipulates that the image can be used without written permission.
I'm curious; what was the nature of the Google search? Was your daughter able to locate the images by searching your name, by subject matter please let me know.
My work is represented by several agencies, each of which follow who visits their image databases; several times, my images have been tracked to unlicensed users, in one case, a corporation had the balls to both pirate one of my images THEN INCORPORATE IT AS PART OF THEIR CORPORATE LOGO! The legal department of the agency that caught it, directed the corporation to "cease and desist" using the image and billed it many times what it would have cost to license the image properly.
But, lawyers or not, if you find one of your images being used without your permission, notify the user to "cease and desist," and, while you may be ignored, suggest that the user compensate you for its use.
The response will take some time but you have raised some interesting stuff. I'll be back.
Amac. Thanks for your response, and the information. As I indicated, my daughter in talking with someone was told that our pictures, my Dads and mine, were on the net and all she had to do was Google Winsted Flood 1955 to find them. I did and son of a gun there they were. It should be noted here, in thinking back, many too many years now, my Dad did copy write the images on the 35 mm slides. He also copywrited (SP?) one picture of an apartment house where the whole building wall was shorn off exposing identical rooms from the second floor up. That was the one that made worldwide newspapers and I dont know there that one is. Sadly, I had it in the log that I lost when my computer committed suicide here this month. In that picture with its stark view of just how unforgiving waters can be was an old personal friend named Sox Thibeault who owned the town taxi service. My sister, who is now gone, had them all and I believe that she gave them to my niece and where they are now I have no idea. The black and whites and the plates are what we donated to the state, in his memory, after his death, so I would expect that the state historical society has them along with the massive book which we created in his dark room at the time. We used the 35 mm for slide shows that we put on to gain money which was donated to the town restoration fund.
For someone of your caliber, and talent, protection of your professional renderings is paramount. For someone such as I who fumbles and stumbles along, to find that anyone cares enough to search them out is a compliment.
What has happened to the town since where I spent so many years after our wanderings is a sad testament to incompetence.
I thank you once again for your interest and the sharing of your knowledge and experience. tsula
Here's a site that everyone might find useful.
Copyright, intellectual property rights and licensing issues.
All of that for a couplehundredpictures? Holy cow.