File talk:WWI - Gassed - John Singer Sargent.jpg

This image may not be in the public domain, even if the original painting is: http://jssgallery.org/Personal/Copyright_Issues.htm

Niek Sanders 14:28, 20 September 2007 (CDT)

photographs of public domain works are themselves public domain. The Supreme Court has ruled that there has to be a genuine creative act to make something copyrightable. (for example, turing a photo into a three-dimensional physical object). An exact copy has never made the cut. Richard Jensen 14:54, 20 September 2007 (CDT)

This work is PD. In some cases, a museum (Imperial War Museum, in this case) would assert property rights unrelated to copyright over their images, but in this case it is the photographer's eyes through her camera that most matters. She has made a wonderful collection, by the way.  —Stephen Ewen (Talk) 18:31, 20 September 2007 (CDT)

This is good to know. I stand corrected. Niek Sanders 20:21, 20 September 2007 (CDT)

I would like to know if whoever snapped the photo was given rights by IWM to do so, however.  —Stephen Ewen (Talk) 20:29, 20 September 2007 (CDT)

Some museums forbid all photographs, and some forbid flash (you need a flash to get a high quality image), primarily so that they can control image sales. They have no legal right to the image of a PD item (only to the physical painting). Richard Jensen 20:33, 20 September 2007 (CDT)

We're talking the U.K. here so I am not ready to make such an assertion but to study it. Regarding this painting, the Imperial War Museum sates Copyright Status: IWM reproduction right.[1]. Ideally, the person was permitted this, of course, and the image looks like it was taken with a flash.  —Stephen Ewen (Talk) 20:44, 20 September 2007 (CDT)