Hi! So I run a YouTube & Tiktok account, mainly based on history ( Victorian era ). I've been wanting to use some of the female licence records/ prisoners photographs from findmypast in my video. The picture in particular is on FindMypast, and was taken in 1869- i think it was supplied by national archives and would likely be out of crown copyright now.
I've tried to look at the findmypast conditions around these things but it's extremely confusing.
I would be very grateful if anyone could shed any light on this for me? Would i be okay to use?
TIA
Findmypast/Ancestry pictures
Re: Findmypast/Ancestry pictures
Hi Lannybx and welcome to the forum,
The reason that the terms and conditions for sites like FindMyPast are rather vague when it comes to intellectual property rights is that in most cases the company is only licensed to supply the data/images contained in records which are owned by someone else. Secondly, very oftern the actual status of the copyright is unknown. What they do own is the database right, but since you do not intend to use large quantities of their data, you are not likely to infringe this particular right. In general FMP do not claim to own copyright, but instead make it a condition of membership that their content is not used for commercial purposes without permission.
As you say, these photographs will probably have been subject to Crown Copyright. This lasts for 125 years from the end of the year in which the work was made, so photographs in this series from around 1845 up to 1899 are now out of copyright.
You would probably be breaking the membership conditions by using the images from FMP, and if they found out about your use they might cancel your membership. However if you went to the National Archives and copied the images at source, there would be no such pre-conditions to worry about. Since I imagine that this might not be practical, I suggest you ask FMP for permission and if granted, this would not jeopardise your membership.
The reason that the terms and conditions for sites like FindMyPast are rather vague when it comes to intellectual property rights is that in most cases the company is only licensed to supply the data/images contained in records which are owned by someone else. Secondly, very oftern the actual status of the copyright is unknown. What they do own is the database right, but since you do not intend to use large quantities of their data, you are not likely to infringe this particular right. In general FMP do not claim to own copyright, but instead make it a condition of membership that their content is not used for commercial purposes without permission.
As you say, these photographs will probably have been subject to Crown Copyright. This lasts for 125 years from the end of the year in which the work was made, so photographs in this series from around 1845 up to 1899 are now out of copyright.
You would probably be breaking the membership conditions by using the images from FMP, and if they found out about your use they might cancel your membership. However if you went to the National Archives and copied the images at source, there would be no such pre-conditions to worry about. Since I imagine that this might not be practical, I suggest you ask FMP for permission and if granted, this would not jeopardise your membership.
Advice or comment provided here is not and does not purport to be legal advice as defined by s.12 of Legal Services Act 2007