not always happens the way you say. About three years ago i bought a Pss Alexandra cabinet and a while ago i found the same picture in a flickr gallery. Happened that this guy bought a copy of the same image on ebay. Following your statement i would claim he stole my image and ask him to take it off from his gallery, when he only bought another copy of the image since they were mass reproduced. Even happened here when Eddie , who has a collection of his own, posted the same image of alexandra that it was on a ebay auction days before he posted that image. What if the owner had sent a message to the forum ad to ask to remove that image, even tho Eddie IS the owner of the copy of that same image?-.The same question for those who gonna buy copies of those rare images from the saxe coburg and gotha private albumns , which are currently on sale on ebay?.
This is a tricky thing, because as i said before, sometimes the image was taken by X photo studio, the negative sold and the image reproduced as CDV or Cabinet card by different or the same photo studios (there is one of Alexandra by Downey and the same image also by Melhuish).
The only way to Prove you own a "unique" picture is : 1) this is an unique image AKa candid family image, held previously by a private owner, 2)you bought a copy from a private archive and the owner assured you that it was a rare and unique portrait, even tho if its an official image which, i repeat, it was mass reproduced and as costume back them, everybody had a copy.
Anyway, the picture i posted didnt belong to any owner, it was on a russian website of auctions and russian people, mostly of them , are more relaxed about copyright issues since the laws there are a bit different (for what i ve been told. Correct me if im wrong)
Back to the topic..
Queen olga with Andrew and Christopher
