New Book: Alexandra + Toni Becker-Bracht

[Helen]

Thank you for the additional information, Marlene.

This particular book is published by a granddaughter of Toni Becker's, and all photos, with the exception of one or two, come from her private family archive. Several photos included in the book are not out of copyright yet, and one would need the author's - or author's family's - permission to reproduce them.

Please correct me if I'm mistaken, but I believe the situation is even more complicated in this case. Many pictures in this book are pictures of unique items that have not been published before and are now published for the first time. Then there are several pre-1923 photos that are signed by the Empress or her brother Ernst Ludwig personally, some with a special dedication to Toni Becker: I think they are unique items, now lawfully published for the first time too. A person - in this case the author - who, for the first time lawfully publishes or lawfully communicates to the public a previously unpublished work, benefits from a protection equivalent to the economic rights of the creator, and the term of this protection is 25 years from the time when the work was first lawfully published or lawfully communicated to the public. Wouldn't this provision protect the great majority of pictures in this particular book for the next 25 years?

[Teddy]

Still, I find it a pity that everytime when a new book appears on the market, that some people think automatically that they have the right to scan all pictures in the book and publish them on the internet.

But thanks for your explanation Marlene. Copyright is such a difficult topic.

[Marlene]

I need to backtrack  -- I was applying US law to a book pubished in Germany.  US laws are very tight - and get tighter every few years., EU and German copyright law differs on some things. Doing a little research, I have discovered that German copyright regarding photos may be a little different. If a photo or a print has not been published within a 50 year period, the photo is out of copyright.  (In the US, there were renewal periods - which is why the burden is on the person who wants to use an image made between 1923-1960. It is up to that person to find out if the image's copyright was renewed.)
Signatures on a photo are irrelevant.  If I am not mistaken (and I am no expert on German copyright law), the previously published photos are under copyright protection for 50 years in Germany.  (family snaps, such as vacation snaps, are copyrighted in Germany for the life of photographer plus 70 years).   If I read the law right, the unpublished photos may be subjected to copyright UNLESS these were family snaps - not posed, official photographs.  Not studio photographs.  I have not received my copy of the book, but if these family photos were taken by Toni's father or anyone else and not officially posed photos, the copyright would have expired 70 years after the death of Toni's father.  German law is also specific about reproductions ...the German law also includes directives about reproductions of photos (not subject to copyright.)  However, I am not an expert on Germany's intellectual property law.  I can safely say that the text is copyrighted.

Thank you for the additional information, Marlene.

This particular book is published by a granddaughter of Toni Becker's, and all photos, with the exception of one or two, come from her private family archive. Several photos included in the book are not out of copyright yet, and one would need the author's - or author's family's - permission to reproduce them.

Please correct me if I'm mistaken, but I believe the situation is even more complicated in this case. Many pictures in this book are pictures of unique items that have not been published before and are now published for the first time. Then there are several pre-1923 photos that are signed by the Empress or her brother Ernst Ludwig personally, some with a special dedication to Toni Becker: I think they are unique items, now lawfully published for the first time too. A person - in this case the author - who, for the first time lawfully publishes or lawfully communicates to the public a previously unpublished work, benefits from a protection equivalent to the economic rights of the creator, and the term of this protection is 25 years from the time when the work was first lawfully published or lawfully communicated to the public. Wouldn't this provision protect the great majority of pictures in this particular book for the next 25 years?

[Helen]

Thank you for the additional information. The law seems quite complicated on this. Perhaps I should study German copyright law and the transposition of relevant EU Directives into national law in Germany in greater detail when I can find time for it.