Copyright on military pictures ?

[P-E]

Dear,

 

I'm just asking me what are the regulations in regard to the copyright for photographies taken by soldiers during their military service.

 

I mean, i've read on some places : "this image is a work of a US Army soldier or employee, taken or made as part of that person's official duties. As a work of the US federal government, the image is in the public domain".

 

Or

 

"This work is in the public domain in the United States because it is a work prepared by an officer or employee of the United States Government as part of that person's official duties under the terms of Title 17, chapter 1, section 105 of the US Code. Note : this only applies to original works of the Federal Government and not to the work of any individual US state, territoryw commonwealth, country, municipality, or any other subdivision."

 

Does that mean that an author can reuse photographies taken by a soldier during his service oversea without infraction to the copyright (thus, he still have to mention the source) ?

 

Thanks for your advies !

 

P-E

[Mr.Jerry]

I think the "as part of their official duties" is the killer for most photos, as most soldiers were not actually supposed to take photos (and the ones that did had to be cleared by censors) the "Official ones" were generally done by the signal corps and are found as high quality larger format photos and marked as such. Not the smaller brownie type typically seen by GIs. That all being said there is the "calculated risk" in using photos that technically are copyrighted to the original photographer, but you have to look at the chance of the owner (or subsequent heirs) making an infringement claim.

[QED4]

You are really going to need a copyright lawyer to answer that. The law now is a photograph is the intellectual property of the person that took the picture but what the law was during WWII or before I do not know plus there are all sort of complications like whether you made a resonable attempt to locate an unknown owner or the owner can prove it is his. Also you get into "fair use" of copyright material for several things. That is why there are lawyers and courts it can all get very gray.