Photographs of Public Domain works
The Patry Copyright Blog: Tonight in Manhattan, I am participating in a program that raises thorny issues of the scope of copyright in photographs of public domain works of art: are such photographs protectible, and if so under what circumstances and under what theories of copyright? What are the consequences for the publication of art books and journals? Here is the program:
Who Owns This Image?
Art, Access, and the Public Domain after Bridgeman v. Corel
Public Panel Discussion
Cosponsored by
Art Law Committee, New York City Bar Association
College Art Association
ARTstor
Creative Commons
Panelists:
Dr. Theodore Feder, President, Art Resource, Artists Rights Society
Honorable Lewis Kaplan, United States District Judge SDNY
Honorable Pierre Leval, United States Court of Appeals, Second Circuit
Christopher Lyon, Executive Editor, Prestel Publishing
William Patry, Senior Copyright Counsel, Google
Maureen Whalen, Associate General Counsel, J. Paul Getty Trust
Moderator:
Virginia Rutledge, Chair, Art Law Committee, New York City Bar Association,
Vice President and General Counsel Creative Commons
Who owns the Mona Lisa? In Bridgeman Art Library Ltd. v. Corel
Corp. (S.D.N.Y. 1999), Judge Lewis A. Kaplan ruled that exact photographic copies of two-dimensional public domain works of art are not copyrightable under U.S. law, because such images are not original. Yet nearly a decade after that decision, copyright in many such images continues to be asserted.
This program addresses questions currently debated across the worlds of art, publishing, and the law:
Should access to public domain artworks control uses of images of those works? When and how should custodians of public domain artworks exercise control over reproductions of them? How does contract intersect with copyright in the control of image uses? Does the image permissions hurdle play a role in the decline of art publishing, or are the complaints of critics overwrought? What is the nature of the public domain with respect to works of art?
When:
Tuesday, April 29, 2008
6:30 – 8:00 pm
Where:
New York City Bar Association
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