[Foundation-l] Commons copyright violotion and OTRS

Wed Jul 20 20:57:01 UTC 2005

Robert Scott Horning wrote:

> What needs to be done here is to research exactly who may be correct. 
> Many WWII photographs are likely to still be under copyright (the 
> life+75 rule has not gone into effect yet, or the 100 year rule... 
> depending on what copyright laws you are using, and was published 
> after 1924 when prior copyright had entered into public domain) and my 
> gut feeling is that it is likely to be a copyright violation.

A significant portion of WW2-era photographs were taken by U.S. 
government personnel during the course of their official duties, and are 
therefore in the public domain.

In any case, someone running a WW2 website doesn't have much of a claim 
against us, unless *they* took the pictures, or otherwise own the 
copyrights to them.

-Mark