Post by Evertjan.Post by J. P. Gilliver (John)OK, it might not be _copyright_ that is the relevant rights legislation.
But there is _something_. There is _some_ justification: if a company
has expended time and equipment, and therefore money, in making scans,
and you just (say) print off and sell the scans you've downloaded from
their website, they're entitled to be peeved. Ancestry and FMP being the
obvious companies for this newsgroup. (Ancestry at least - probably all
of them - watermark their images; for Ancestry, it's faint leaf
symbols.)
Nonsense, this thread is ABOUT copyright.
Nobody, including you or me, _owns_ a thread on an unmoderated usenet
'group.
Although the OP used the word copyright in the subject, it was clear to
me that what is of concern to him is whether he can use information from
a newspaper; he's interested in anything that might cause a problem,
whether actual copyright or otherwise. I raised - and he thanked me for
doing so - the point that (AIUI - IANAL) the _content_ is the original
copyright (whoever if anyone owns that), but the _image_ - the scan -
might involve some rights (copyright or something else) of the entity
who scanned it, since they have expended time/money/equipment to
_create_ the scan. He has told us that the entity which created the scan
are not going to exercise any rights they might have in that respect,
but they - the scanning entity - are, wisely, not going to give any
advice about the copyright, if any, in the original text.
Post by Evertjan.And [international] law is not about "some justification",
it is not "common law".
I think the OP and the scanning organisation are both in England; the
newspaper, I judge from the subject, definitely is. Therefore English,
rather than international, law may be relevant. But anyway, when I
referred to some justification, I was referring to any rights (copyright
or otherwise) that might vest in the scanning entity - and it seems
they're not going to exercise any such rights, so _that_ matter is moot.
So we're back to the question of original copyright, if any remains.
This would depend on whether the original contributor released any
rights they might have to the newspaper at the time of its publication -
a common condition these days, but I don't know if it was 100 years ago.
If the author managed to retain copyright: if the paper was published
100 years ago, and one might assume the contributor was 21 or older,
then they're going to be dead by now, but possibly less than 70 years
ago.
The OP hasn't told us where he's planning to use the material. (There
was/is no need to reveal this.)
LET'S HAVE THOSE "INDICATIVE" VOTES!!! I think they're the only way forward.
--
Fair petitions? See 255soft.uk; #fairpetitions @jpeg_G6;
https://petition.parliament.uk/petitions/232770
--
J. P. Gilliver. UMRA: 1960/<1985 MB++G()AL-IS-Ch++(p)***@T+H+Sh0!:`)DNAf
If something works, thank an engineer. (Reported seen on a bumper sticker.)