What is the copyright status of a reprint of a public domain image?

[PhotoMu]

What is the name of your state (only U.S. law)? Kentucky

If someone makes a reprint of a public domain image (like a 200 year old painting or engraving), is that reprint now copywritten and cannot be further reproduced?

I have read that as long as the original is in the public domain, reprints without substantial change are also in the public domain.....but what if the reprint publisher went through some difficulty getting an image of the original (i.e., had to travel to Paris, go to a library special collections, scan the image, etc)?

Imagine that someone reprints the Mona Lisa or the cover of a 150 yr old news paper, or a greeting card from 1890, etc. Can I make derivative works from their image?

 

[quincy]

What is the name of your state (only U.S. law)? Kentucky

If someone makes a reprint of a public domain image (like a 200 year old painting or engraving), is that reprint now copywritten and cannot be further reproduced?

I have read that as long as the original is in the public domain, reprints without substantial change are also in the public domain.....but what if the reprint publisher went through some difficulty getting an image of the original (i.e., had to travel to Paris, go to a library special collections, scan the image, etc)?

Imagine that someone reprints the Mona Lisa or the cover of a 150 yr old news paper, or a greeting card from 1890, etc. Can I make derivative works from their image?

The reprint of a public domain image is in the public domain (under most circumstances), regardless of the labor put into making the reprint, as long as nothing creative or original has been added to the image.

 

[PhotoMu]

The reprint of a public domain image is in the public domain (under most circumstances), regardless of the labor put into making the reprint, as long as nothing creative or original has been added to the image.

Thanks!

This does indeed make a lot of sense to me. Certainly I know the new publisher can't claim rights over the original imagery....and since his imagery is really 99.999% identical to the original, I can't see that he'd have a claim.

Still, something just feels weird about plopping newly published photo of an 1890 post card down onto my scanner......and using later using that image. For example, it would then be possible to take someones photo of a public domain 2D work, digitize it, and put it on a tshirt.

Interesting stuff

 

[quincy]

Thanks!

This does indeed make a lot of sense to me. Certainly I know the new publisher can't claim rights over the original imagery....and since his imagery is really 99.999% identical to the original, I can't see that he'd have a claim.

Still, something just feels weird about plopping newly published photo of an 1890 post card down onto my scanner......and using later using that image. For example, it would then be possible to take someones photo of a public domain 2D work, digitize it, and put it on a tshirt.

Interesting stuff

As long as the published photo has not changed the public domain work in any way (for example, colorizing a black and white work) you are able to use it and make derivatives from it. You can take someone's photograph of the Mona Lisa and digitize it and put it on a tee-shirt. Again, this is assuming the photograph of the public domain work does not have any additions or modifications to it that could be copyrightable.

What you cannot do, for example, is copy an entire book that is filled with public domain images, because the selection of works and the arrangement of works in the book can be copyright-protected (as would be any text that is added), even though the photos of the public domain works that are in the book are not copyright-protected.

The defining case is "Bridgeman Art Library v Corel Corp," 25 F.Supp 2d 421 (S.D.N.Y 1998), accessible through: http://www.harvard.edu/faculty/m@rtin/art_law/bridgeman1.pdf (the name m@rtin is asterisked out on this forum so a direct link is not possible) or you can try: http://www.constitution.org/1ll/court/fed/bridgman.html