File talk:Immigrants Approaching Statue of Liberty.jpg

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Some doubts remain on the copyright. See earlier discussion in the Village Pump:

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I have here an image from Getty Images taken in 1915. http://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/immigrants-view-the-statue-of-liberty-while-entering-new-news-photo/1759162# As you can see, the page claims that the image was copyrighted in 2003 and that Getty still owns it. Is this possible since all works created before 1923 are now in public domain? (the author died in 1929).--Ultimate Roadgeek (talk) 19:16, 8 December 2012 (UTC)[reply]

My personal opinion - I doubt that Getty have a leg to stand on with regard to any attempt to claim copyright in this case and I would expect they slap a standard licence on all such images to fulfill their own commercial goals. They include a definition of 'editorial' use rather than commercial use, I have no idea if this has traction with regard to meaningful copyright enforcement. I would be happy to see this image with the {{PD-1923}} licence. --Fæ (talk) 19:31, 8 December 2012 (UTC)[reply]
They may be hoping they can get a separate copyright on the digital reproduction, despite court cases indicating otherwise. In the end, they will claim as much as they can to reduce copying and increase the chances you will pay them something (whether they own the copyright or not). They also have archives of old PD publicity photos and that sort of thing, but if you can't find them elsewhere, you may want to pay them for access anyways. However, do note that it is only photos published before 1923 which are public domain, not simply created. If the photo remained unpublished until 2003 until Getty published it, then its term will be 120 years from creation, unless the photographer is known, in which case it would be 70 years after the photographer died. In that case it's credited to Edwin Levick, who died in 1929, though if it was made by an employee, it would not be based on Levick's lifetime. Very good chance of being PD, though it would be best to find an earlier publication than Getty's. Carl Lindberg (talk) 21:37, 8 December 2012 (UTC)[reply]

I've decided to go ahead and upload an unwatermarked version of the file. http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Immigrants_Approaching_Statue_of_Liberty.jpg with a {{PD-1923}}. It could also be {{PD-US-unpublished}}, I'm not sure. Thanks for your help, although I fear this may not be over yet.--Ultimate Roadgeek (talk) 07:28, 9 December 2012 (UTC)[reply]

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