Copyright protection on originally non-copyrighted material

[artellis]

What is the name of your state? Florida.

1) A magazine published pictures in the early 1950s that I would like to reproduce. I asked persmission in writing, but they never responded. The 1952 magazine has no copyright notice on it. What's the law?

2) Certain unpublished letters in the 1950s are now published. Are they copyright protected, even though they were not originally?

 

[ChicagoLawyer]

1) Though notice is no longer required, lack of copyright notice on older materials could take them out of the protection of the Federal copyright laws. However, state laws would control. You would have to look at the laws of the state where published. Find a local lawyer for this.

2) Possibly. You would have to look at the chain of ownership of the copyrights in the materials themselves. Then you could look at the publication issues.

This is not legal advice, rather it is intended to be general in nature. We do not have an attorney-client relationship.