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Re: Copyright Question--Architectural Drawing



At 01:30 PM 11/14/2001 -0500, Bob Schmidt wrote:
Hi Everyone,
We have a sketch done by an architectural firm
commissioned by Miami for a building project
circa. 1909. A patron would like to publish a
reproduction of the sketch. As far as I can tell,
the firm whose name appears on the sketch no
longer exists. Provided that the University has no
problems, I suspect that it would be ok to publish
the sketch. But not being an expert, I thought I'd
better ask for advice on this.

Under the 1909 Copyright Act, while buildings could not be copyrighted,
architectural drawings were copyrightable as pictorial or graphic
works.   The key question is whether the plans were published.  Did the
plans appear in a college publication or in an architectural magazine?  If
not, they are likely to be unpublished.   (Most commentators seem to feel
that construction of the building does not constitute publication of the
underlying plans).  According to my chart at
<http://cidc.library.cornell.edu/copyright>, the plans would still be
copyrighted.

Reproduction is one of the exclusive rights of the copyright owner.  To
duplicate the plans, you could seek the permission of the copyright
owner.  Determing the authorship of these plans might be no mean feat.  The
author of the plans could be the firm (as with modern practice) or the
University (as an employer).  You could also duplicate the plans if one of
the copyright exemptions (such as fair use) applies.  Finally, you could
duplicate the plans and hope that no one sues you.

I am not a lawyer, and this is not legal advice.  Stephen Fishman has a
chapter on architectural plans in his excellent book The Public Domain.


---------------------------------------------------------------
Peter B. Hirtle
Co-Director                                pbh6@cornell.edu
Cornell Institute for Digital Collections     607/255-4033 (ph)
2B Kroch Library                                   607/255-9524 (fax)
Cornell University                <http://cidc.library.cornell.edu/>
Ithaca, NY  14853
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