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Re: Copyright question
At 08:10 AM 10/2/2001 -0700, Richard Pearce-Moses
wrote:
I once asked a lawyer if it would
be possible to start an abandoned property
proceeding for copyright to clear up title. The lawyer pretty much
gave a
flat "no" to that possibility (I forget the rationale, but it
must have
sounded good enough to keep me from pursuing what I thought was a
pretty
nifty solution).
Abandonment of copyright requires intent by the copyright owner to
surrender rights in the work. Normally this intent is proved by an
overt act evidencing such intent. This might be a statement
relinquishing copyright in the work or the destruction of the only
existing copy of a work. Leaving photographs in a building wouldn't
be enough I don't think to prove that there was an intent to abandon
copyright.
Richard also wrote:
Copyright can only be transferred
in writing.
The law actually says: "The ownership of a
copyright may be transferred in whole or in part by any means of
conveyance or by operation of law, and
may be bequeathed by will or pass as personal property by the applicable
laws of intestate succession." In this case, it is likely that
the copyright in the photographs (assuming the photographers were
employees and not contractors) was a corporate asset that passed, perhaps
unknowingly, to one of the successor companies.
Most of all, Richard is right that the issue here is one of risk
management.
Peter B. Hirtle
pbh6@cornell.edu
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