WWII images--need advise on marketing

[djdister]

I think the potential financial gain from selling these would be outweighed by potential copyright questions (as noted by Jim Jones) as well as fighting with image thieves (as noted by Randy Moe), so I recommend giving them to a university or military library (as noted by Jbenedict). You might see what kind of questions/response you get from an image bank service about selling the images to them, as a precursor of what you might be up against.

[goamules]

You can research it to be sure, but I believe photographs taken by a person while in the military are in the Public Domain. I.E. not copyrighted.

US code, Title 17, Chapt 1, 105
http://www.copyright.gov/title17/92chap1.html#105

[djdister]

You can research it to be sure, but I believe photographs taken by a person while in the military are in the Public Domain. I.E. not copyrighted.

I don't think it's that simple. If the photos were taken by a military photographer (whether or not they were "on duty" at the time) then the photos belong to the U.S. Government. If they were not taken by a military photographer, then it is a different story, however I would not be surprised if someone raised a challenge if they recognize "Grandpa" or "Grandma" in one of the shots...

The copyright law also describes "fair use" of audio visual media, however that is different from someone selling images for a profit.

As a former military photographer myself, I would have a problem if someone "found" one of my photos and then made a profit by selling it, although I do not know what the legal ramifications would be.

Anyway, I'm not a lawyer and don't play one on TV. Looks like he could do what ever he wants with them...

[goamules]

That's the interesting part; when you are in the military, you ARE the US Government, technically. Look at all the WWII archives websites, the hundreds of WWII photos being sold on ebay (quick search shows 24,000 being sold lately), etc. That is not fair use, that's commercial. And no one is sweating it.

I don't want to scare the OP off, I want him to research it properly and do what he wants if it's oK. Which it appears to be to me. Copyright assigned ownership for a finite time and barring unusual circumstances, lasted for a maximum of 75 years for items created and published before the 1976 revision of the copyright law.

[goamules]

Here is an example. A historic US Navy site has scrapbooks of several sailors, full of pictures they took in Tahiti, and other ports of call.
http://www.history.navy.mil/photos/a...7h/f187h-a.htm

Their site reads this (as do most archives, WWII history books, etc): "Public Domain - To the best of our knowledge, all images referenced in the Online Library are in the Public Domain. They can be used by anyone, for any purpose, without obtaining our permission and without payment of usage fees."

[Randy]

I guess if the negatives were purchased from the estate of the photographer, a reasonable person could assume that the purchaser would then own the rights to the negatives and could therefor use them for what ever purposes he/she chose...but that's what a reasonable person could assume. Copyright laws may not be so reasonable.

[lenser]

I purchased the estate/studio in 1975. The purchase agreement included full rights to all negatives in the studio files which is where these were found. I was able to sell a good many of the original negative files and prints to either the original subjects, or just people in town who were interested in local history.

That original sales document is long gone and I am the only survivor of the sale since both the widow and the attorney are deceased. There are a couple of surviving children of that marriage, but they had absolutely nothing to do with the sale of the estate and contents.

I do intend to research the copyright issue further as well as continue to research the military records of this photographer so that I can try to more closely pin down the areas where some of these images were taken. AS of now, I have no information about him having been a military photographer, but rather that he was simply a US Marine who happened to shoot lots of photos of his experiences during the war.

Many thanks to those who have contributed answers and suggestions, and please keep them coming.

Tim

[Wayne]

I'd be interested to know what you do. I have hundreds of negative my father shot in the Pacific (mostly New Guinea) in WWII, though most are rather mundane in the artistic sense but interesting subject-wise.

[Keith Fleming]

There may be an indirect way to benefit financially from that collection--but I have to admit here I am writing as a former civilian historian for the USMC. Collections such as this can be donated to the Marine Corps (or other military service) and the value deducted from the donor's tax return. The requirement is that the donor get the collection professionally appraised--and the military service cannot provide that service. It also would be prudent to consult a CPA on this before donating.

The Marines have the National Museum of the Marine Corps in Triangle, Virginia (outside the Quantico Marine Corps Base), and the Marine Corps University (on board Quantico) has a research center where such collections are stored for research purposes. The research center may also be able to give you some information about the original photographer--for example, there are annual lineal lists of officers and there are casualty cards on those wounded during the war. It's one of those places where the more you look, the more you find.