Copyright Aid

Hi Lminto, The signature and quote shouldn't pose any problems because they fall within the section 30(1ZA) exception for the purpose of quotation. I think you can rely on the second part of subsection 1ZA(d) not to provide a credit because it would be impractical in the circumstances. However I wou...

I have read the following information elsewhere: "If you have infringed copyright primarily, the damages would not be limited to the charge they would normally ask for that image. The charge for using it lawfully is usually the starting point for infringement, with the damages increasing from that ...

Hi balkan, It is important that you make these people aware that you know that if they take you to court, any damages would be based on the loss sustained by the copyright owner and no more, hence that is the basis of your counter offer. Expect a certain amout of fight back and bluster, but if you s...

Hi balkan, First of all if you haven't already done so, remove the disputed image from your website immediately. You don't mention anything about the photo which is in dispute or how long they are claiming it has been in use, but I think it's fair to say that a four figure sum is likely to be wholly...

I suppose a test would be if I took some prints from the Mother in laws postcard and offered them for sale and see if a legal challange is raised... :D That would be a great idea. You could shut down a claim like that in a matter of minutes because if you perfomed your own scan of an out-of-copyrig...

Hi sassanach, The facetious answer is that yes anyone can claim copyright in just about anything. However they may not have a valid claim. In the case you have cited, it would seem highly unlikely that any new copyright has been created by whoever has digitised these postcards. The law says that a c...

Hi Sally, Ah yes, that does make a bit of a difference. The knitting pattern does result in a copy of a copyright work or works if it incorporates the images of the actual characters, since they form a substantial part of Hergé's work. But assuming that the pattern maker has got a licence to produce...

Hi Sally, Good to hear from you again. Under UK law it's most unlikely that the original Hergé sweater would have gained copyright protection: it's too small a detail of the characters which are themselves but components of the larger artistic works which make up the Tintin cartoon strips, to form a...

Hi Nick, You've been very thorough with your research! I only did a quick google for JD Semken and didn't immediately find anything promising. In line with what I said earlier about approaching Semken or his heirs, I will pm Helen with Semken's oldest son's contact details and she can take it from t...

Hi Nick, Thanks for raising this. I'm sure you are right that we need to consider the pre-1911 legal position more carefully when analysing the issues here. What follows covers just the UK position on copyright; I am sure that, as I and others have argued, the US copyright if it ever truly existed, ...

Hi TP, That's an interesting question. From a copyright point of view I don't think it matters so long as the original author of the quote is acknowledged. Misquotation is so prevalent that it qualifies for an entry in Wikipedia . Assuming that you wanted to quote and amend a fairly long passage (ie...

Hi helenoran462, From the frontispiece of the Waite book, it would appear that Coleman Smith is being acknowledged as the author (or possibly joint author) of the illustrations in the book, and so since the book was published in the UK, UK law will apply because she was a British resident at the tim...

Nick is absolutely right. I should have said that each individual frame of the film was classed as an individual work. So, if the images you wish to use are definitely captured from the film itself then my answer is the way to go, but if they are stills taken on the set as Nick described, his answer...

Hi mp1984, The bottom of the article you linked to concerns the 1891 US patent application for the board 'game'. Patents are territorial in nature so a US patent, if it was granted, would only have applied within the USA. In any case, a patent only lasts for 20 years, so we can dismiss any patent pr...

Hi Pete, There's an entry in the Library of Congress Catalogue of Copyright Entries Part 5A - Published Music - for Jan-June 1948 crediting Lloyd (Lonzo) George and Rollin (Oscar) Sullivan (the country music duo you mentioned - Wikipedia entry here ) with the lyrics, and indicating that the copyrigh...