On Sun, 23 May 2004 01:25:11 +0100, Alasdair Baxter put finger to
keyboard and typed:

I have an old school photograph which was taken with a panning camera
resulting in a very long narrow strip.

I tried Jessops and Boots to get a copy made but they refused on the
ground that it was copyright.

Fair enough, but this was taken about fifty years ago and there's no
photographer's name on the print so I don't know how to set about
getting copyright clearance. Even if the photographer is dead and
gone or, being a company, has been dissolved, the copyright apparently
subsists for 75 years after the death of the photographer or the
demise of the company.

It occurred to me to deal with this in the same way as people deal
with restrictive covenants on land and take out insurance to cover any
possible claim by photographer's great-grandchildren or the Official
Receiver of the company.

Does anyone know how to get around this problem? How much research
effort is one supposed to do to track down the heirs of a long dead
photographer?

Legally, there's nothing you can do. Jessops and Boots have no choice
but to refuse to make a copy for you, as they can't knowingly breach
copyright. If you consience allows it, though (and mine would, under
the same circumstances), you can copy the photo yourself with a
high-quality scanner, or get a friend to do it. Or (as others have
suggested) you could get a fake permission form drawn up and present
that to the shop. But I would be less inclined to go down that route
as it's then more than mere copyright infringement, you're engaging in
deception as well.

Mark
--
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