The right rights.

October 21, 2009 10:28 AM

Went to a family run estate sale. The deceased was a student of some very famous Chicago photographers. The work was never really shown on a large scale. Some amazing stuff. I bought all of his negatives and prints. Thousands of images. They were sold by the direct relatives of the photographer to me. The big question, who owns the rights to the images?
posted by Bighappyfunhouse to Law & Government (8 answers total)

Best answer: Unless you got a signed transfer of copyright from the estate (the legal "estate", not just some relatives), the copyright belongs to the estate of the photographer.

Ownership of the materials does not constitute ownership of copyright.
posted by gyusan at 10:36 AM on October 21, 2009 [2 favorites]

Best answer: I think, and I could be mistaken here, that you'd need some kind of document granting you the copyright. When the place I work at acquires a collection of papers of photographs, we need to specify in a deed of gift that we are given copyright, so I'd imagine the same applies to you.

To be sure, you could contact the US Copyright Office.
posted by elder18 at 10:38 AM on October 21, 2009

Best answer: You can read up on this in the Library of Congress's Copyright Basics pdf. Link is on this page, first link under "about copyright".

There is a section in that document called "transfer of copyright" - here is an excerpt:



"Any or all of the copyright owner’s exclusive rights or any
subdivision of those rights may be transferred, but the transfer
of exclusive rights is not valid unless that transfer is in
writing and signed by the owner of the rights conveyed or
such owner’s duly authorized agent. Transfer of a right on a
nonexclusive basis does not require a written agreement.
A copyright may also be conveyed by operation of law and
may be bequeathed by will or pass as personal property by
the applicable laws of intestate succession."
posted by gyusan at 10:41 AM on October 21, 2009

Best answer: gyusan and elder18 are correct. Copyright, as with most other property rights, is typically described as a "bundle of rights". The parts of the bundle that you purchased are the rights to possess the physical objects, as well as the right to display them in a noncommercial context (e.g., in your home). You are also free to sell the objects you purchased, but not copies of them. Absent a specific transfer of copyright or an agreement to display or publish, those rights are retained by the original artist or their heirs/assigns.
posted by katemonster at 10:44 AM on October 21, 2009

Best answer: I don't mean any offense, but it's remarkable to me that nobody ever thinks to just read the copyright law. On most issues, it's pretty straightforward.
posted by sinfony at 10:53 AM on October 21, 2009

I would contact an attorney. It really depends upon when the photographs were taken and what copyright law was in effect at the time. The one in effect now didn't take effect until 1978!
posted by Leezie at 10:59 AM on October 21, 2009

Response by poster: The photos were taken in 1952 - 1955. Mostly street scenes of Chicago.

From what I'm reading in the links, it looks like I need to find the heirs. I want to put together a book of his work.

Thank you very much for the help!
posted by Bighappyfunhouse at 11:25 AM on October 21, 2009

I would just like to chime in to highly recommend Bighappyfunhouse's website - I've been subscribing for about a year or so and it's a consistently amazing and rewarding presentation of anonymous or "found" photography. If he says he's found some amazing stuff, you know that this is going to be a book worth having someday!
posted by extrabox at 2:47 PM on October 21, 2009 [2 favorites]