Magazine copyright - editors or contributors?

[MrsTwosheds]

Hi guys

I’m so sorry to trouble you all again - I seem to be haunting these pages of late!

I have a query regarding copyright of an annual (The Girl’s Own Annual, in fact), dated 1910/11, if I may please? The annual is a compilation of The Girl’s Own Paper and Woman’s Magazine. The title pages proclaim that the whole is edited by Flora Klickmann who was, I understand, quite a notable editor of such publications.

She lived (I have just discovered) to a fine old age and died in 1958. I now understand (from my many forays into knotty issues within this group) that anything created by her would still be within copyright (until the end of 2028?).

My question is this, please. Does a named editor hold the copyright to the whole of such publications, or only to the pieces written by them? Many of the articles and stories therein are by named journalists or authors (some by ‘The Editor’, but only a few), and there are handy tips about making lampshades, knitting vests and several cautionary tales. The latter items appear not to be written by anyone in particular (or, at least, by anyone who wants to put their name to them ).

My main area of interest is the fashion pages, which are plentiful but these again do not indicate any kind of authorship. I’d ideally like to scan these, enlarge them and make them into posters for the fashion notes of our women’s suffrage display, but am very muddled about the copyright.

Is the editorial ownership of anonymous articles implied? There is a note on a page of particularly flashy hats which suggests that readers wishing to purchase such items should contact the Editor for access to a private milliner, who would be able to copy the designs.

Obviously, If Ms Klickmann holds the copyright over all, I can’t replicate any of this. I seem to remember, though, that I can repurpose the book itself without fear of imprisonment?

Thank you, guys. As always any help will be gratefully received.

Very many thanks

[AndyJ]

Hi Sally,

No need to apologise, it's what we are here for and you always raise interesting issues.

It's important to differentiate between authoship and ownership in instances like this. The lifetime of the author of a piece of writing, artwork or photograph determines the duration of copyright in that particular item, even if the copyright is actually owned by someone else, in this case the publisher of the annuals. The whole printed edition of a book or magazine etc also has a separate overall copyright which last for 25 years from the date of publication (see sections 8 and 15 CDPA) but that is not really relevant here.

So a page from a newspaper, magazine or annual could consist of several items all with different lengths of copyright depending on when each of the authors died. This makes it really hard to work out exactly when the whole of a compilation such as an annual becomes free of copyright. Add to this the complexity of finding the present day owner of the copyright and you can see that sometimes the simple answer is to make an educated estimate and hope you are right. For instance if you worked on the assumption that Flora Klickmann was the last contributor to die, I don't think you would go too far wrong. However if you find a specific page, like one of the fashion articles, where there is no named author, you can asssume that copyright in that particular item ended 70 years from the end of the year of publication (see section 12(3) CDPA).

I appreciate that you probably don't want to wait to 2029 to press ahead with your idea, so where the author is not anonymous or unknown, and you can't discover the date of death of a named author, it would probably be worth contacting the Lutterworth Press who I think may be the current owners of the copyright in the Girls' Own Paper etc: Lutterworth Press. Even if they are not the present day owners of the residual copyright (assuming there is any) then they should be able to tell you the name of the actual owner.

[MrsTwosheds]

Aah……that’s excellent news, thanks so much, Andy!

All of the items that I currently want to tinker with (‘Millinery Styles for Middle-Aged Women’, etc) are anonymous, so I shall press ahead with those with gay abandon. I’ve noted the information regarding the Lutterworth Press, though, and will certainly contact them if I decide to extend my fashion notes to include the articles which have authorship.

As always, my sincere gratitude for your speedy assistance and your unfailing good humour. I have no doubt that I shall be back in the fullness of time (and probably a good deal sooner )