photographs online

I would like to publish a website derived in part from photographic cards with descriptive text. These were first published around 1904 in the United Kingdom and have a copyright notice on each photograph to a UK publisher that no longer exists. There is no author but an editor is listed who, presumably, compiled the collection, and who died a bit less than 70 years ago. Will the website, to be set up in the US, infringe copyright in the UK or US by including this content?

That is probably safe to publish but you should make a significant effort to locate the successors to the copyright and see if any claim of copyright exists--just to avoid problems.

--or have a lawyer do a quick check and give an opinion to you in writing.

Originally Posted by Unregistered

That is probably safe to publish but you should make a significant effort to locate the successors to the copyright and see if any claim of copyright exists--just to avoid problems.

--or have a lawyer do a quick check and give an opinion to you in writing.

Thank you. But how do I show 'significant effort' in tracing the heirs to the copyright?

You might want to hire one of the copyright royalty photo firms to ensure no copyright exists on those photos. Or just risk it if you fairly certain.

Originally Posted by Unregistered

You might want to hire one of the copyright royalty photo firms to ensure no copyright exists on those photos. Or just risk it if you fairly certain.

Thanks again. What's a copyright royalty photo firm - is it one that sells stock photos or a legal firm - and how do I find one, that covers both European and US photo royalty issues at reasonable cost? Can you recommend such a firm?

Asker