Copyright issues

[Una Smith]

On Thu, 15 Jul 1999, Stinger wrote:

>                         Thus, if you get legal access to photograph
>the specimens, then you own the copyright to the photographs.

Yes...unless you assign your copyright (as taker of the photograph)
in order to gain legal access to photograph the specimen.  As far as
I know, retroactive claims by museums of copyrights to photographs
of their specimens taken by visiting researchers have not been tested
in court.  I doubt any museum would win such a case if it did go to
court.

Yale Peabody Museum requires transfer of photographers' copyrights
to itself, but is very generous about permissions, to the point where
you can do anything with your photo but make a mug or t-shirt, or
textbook cover out of it without paying the museum for the right to
do so.

        Una Smith               una.smith at yale.edu

        Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology
        Yale University
        New Haven, CT  06520-8106

        http://pantheon.yale.edu/~una/