I don't believe the museum owns the copyright of the photos, unless
copyright was passed on to the museum in writing by the copyright holders.
The materials might be in the public domain, depending on how old the photos
are, if they were ever published, and which formalities were required at the
time of their creation/publication. Peter Hirtle's Public Domain Copyright
Term Chart may help:
http://www.copyright.cornell.edu/training/Hirtle_Public_Domain.htm

If the copyright holders can't be found, the photographs are probably
considered orphan works. Legislation related to the use of orphan works has
been introduced in the house (HR 5439), which should make it easier for some
uses of these types of works. I'm not quite certain where it's going at this
time.

Carlos Ovalle


On 7/3/06, Jessica Waite <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
>
>   Hello! I'm new to the listserv and the museum field. I am not quite as
> familiar with copyright as I would like to be and I was hoping somebody
> would be able to answer my question. Part of my responsibilities is to
> organize the museum's archival and photograph collection. Just today I was
> contacted by a volunteer who would like to use some photographs in our
> collection for publication. The photos are part of a collection donated to
> us by a law firm who inherited the photos from an oil company here in
> Virginia. The company has long been disbanded and the lawyers have passed
> away. Am I right to assume the copyright for the photographs lies with the
> museum? Thanks!
>
> Jessica Waite
>
>
>
> Curator of Collections and Education
>
> Reedville Fishermen's Museum
>
> P.O. Box 306
>
> Reedville, VA  22539
>
> (804) 453-6529
>
>
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A posting from the Archives & Archivists LISTSERV List sponsored by the Society of American Archivists, www.archivists.org.
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      In body of message:  SUB ARCHIVES firstname lastname
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Or to do *anything* (and enjoy doing it!), use the web interface at
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Problems?  Send e-mail to Robert F Schmidt <[log in to unmask]>