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ownership



I have a question regarding ownership with which I hope  the list can
offer some advice.

Who would legally own the images in the following situation:

An architectural firm hires a photographer or more to document the
construction of  buildings that they are working on.  The firm many
years later goes out of business via bankruptcy and all their material
is auctioned.  A former employee of the firm purchases items.  The
employee then in turn tries to sell or donate some of the material to
repositories they feel would be able to put the material to good use.
Some of the images list the photographer, some don't.  Of the ones that
do list the photographer, one has a stamp stating that the negatives are
held by the studio.  The last image created was done in 1953. All are
stamped as property of the architectural firm.

Since the photographer took the images on a "for hire" basis for the
architect, I have always thought that the person or firm hiring the
photographer was the owner of the images in the way that whatever we
create at work is property of our employer.

If the firm goes out of business and their items are purchased by
someone else, does the purchaser really have legal right to give the
items away or sell them?

Maybe this is straighforward and my mind is still on vacation, I just
thought I would appeal to the list for an opinion.

Miriam





Miriam Meislik,MLS
Associate Archivist
Photograph Curator
Archives of Industrial Society
400 North Lexington Avenue
University of Pittsburgh
Pittsburgh, PA 15260
(412)244-7075 voice
(412)244-7077 fax
miriam+@pitt.edu




Everyone has a photographic memory. Some just don't have film.
--Steven Wright

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