I found online a late 18thC/early 19thC image that I would like to use on my website - so I contacted the site where I found it to ask permission - no reply. It think it's highly unlikely that this site owns the original engraving anyway, but hoped they would tell me who I needed to ask.

Are such images in the public domain, or does copyright belong with whoever currently has the original?

It ought to be straightforward - copyright would have run out on the picture, and the fact of owning the physical original doesn't mean someone can control its reproductions (of course you can control access to the original, which is how museums make so much money, but that's different). You could always give the Society of Authors a ring if you're worried, but I'm sure you'd be fine.

Emma

I think on balance you should be ok. It's an old print, rather than an original, and presumably, the site does not say the image is copyrighted.

I would only bother querying it if it is on a museum website, since they are supposed to include a notice that their images cannot be used without permission.


- NaomiM

they are supposed to include a notice that their images cannot be used without permission.

Presumably they claim that they hold copyright in the image, even if copyright in the object is long lapsed. If they also control access to and photographing/copying of the object, they effectively have perpetual copyright. I wonder if anyone's ever challenged that - it does seem to run counter to the idea that copyright protects an author/artist's right to earn from their creation, but in the end it should be in the public domain.

Emma

Ah... apparently it is in the county archives - this hasn't come up in any of the searches I've done over the past couple of weeks and I found it about 2 minutes after posting this question! They do claim to have copyright: http://www.chesterimagebank.com/terms.html

I wonder if the webmaster I originally contacted didn't reply because he'd never asked permission to use it either?!

I will ask the archives and hope they don't want to charge a fee. It's an interesting issue - I found the same with the Wellcome Trust image library, which charges for commercial use of pics - even ones that were widely available as cheap prints in the 18th/19thC. I don't know how they could prove that I haven't found my own copy in the attic or something...

Anyway, thanks for the replies!

C