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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
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