Publicity photograph of George Maharis, taken on or before 1972, proven by another copy. According to the back of one of copies, the play Steambath was supposed to be performed live in Forum Theatre in Summit on Tuesday, April 29, 1975; Maharis was supposed to perform live there. Downloaded from eBay.
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Licensing
Public domainPublic domainfalsefalse
This work is in the public domain in the United States because it was published in the United States between 1929 and 1977, inclusive, without a copyright notice. For further explanation, see Commons:Hirtle chart as well as a detailed definition of "publication" for public art. Note that it may still be copyrighted in jurisdictions that do not apply the rule of the shorter term for US works (depending on the date of the author's death), such as Canada (50 p.m.a.), Mainland China (50 p.m.a., not Hong Kong or Macao), Germany (70 p.m.a.), Mexico (100 p.m.a.), Switzerland (70 p.m.a.), and other countries with individual treaties.
Supposedly, this is an old circa 1974–5 photo reprint. After text font and content were analyzed, presumably, this photo was sent by Gold/Wilson Public Relations to and received in January 1975 by Field Enterprises, Inc. Other copies of this photo say that Harry Langdon is a photographer of this photo, according to other sources, such as eBay.
Copyright Act of 1909
At the time of release, permissions of using this photo was granted to the third-party media for editorial uses only. However, this photo was released during the Copyright Act of 1909 and lacks copyright notice, as indicated in all versions of this file, which the 1909 Act required prior to the Copyright Act of 1976 and the Berne Convention Implementation Act of 1988. No efforts to correct this omission were made.
Year was omitted in those copies, even if year is not required for reproduction. To require copyright protection, this photo must be registered within five years after first publication in circa 1974 or 1975.
No registrations in "Catalog of Copyright Entries" (via Internet Archive) were found:1974,1975, 1976, 1977. No registrations of this photo under search terms "Harry Langdon", "Langdon", or "Langdon, Harry" were found in http://www.copyright.gov, as well.
This photo is seen in Getty Images. However, copyright notice was required for this photo. It was omitted, so effect on commercial opportunities shall be irrelevant.
Analysis of copyright
All versions of and other unscanned portions of the back of this photo do not display the copyright notice. This photo was released under the Copyright Act of 1909, and, under the 1909 Act, the copyright notice was required and must contain three elements:
"The year of first publication. If the work is a derivative work or a compilation incorporating previously published material, the year date of first publication of the derivative work or compilation is sufficient. Examples of derivative works are translations or dramatizations; an example of a compilation is an anthology. The year may be omitted when a pictorial, graphic, or sculptural work, with accompanying textual matter, if any, is reproduced in or on greeting cards, postcards, stationery, jewelry, dolls, toys, or useful articles."
This was not required for copyrighted photos published before 1978 under Copyright Act 1909, and omission of date may have been irrelevant to such works. However, Copyright Act of 1976 came into effect and then has applied to copyrighted materials published before 1978. Year has become required for works published before 1978. Consequently, pre-1973 copyrighted photos without a year of copyright and registration and required mandatory deposit into the Copyright Office lost copyright protection and then fell already into the public domain.
The name of the copyright owner, an abbreviation by which the name can be recognized, or a generally known alternative designation of owner.
Film production expert Eve Light Honthaner in The Complete Film Production Handbook, (Focal Press, 2001 p. 211.):
“
Publicity photos (star headshots) have traditionally not been copyrighted. Since they are disseminated to the public, they are generally considered public domain, and therefore clearance by the studio that produced them is not necessary.
”
The Professional Photographer's Legal Handbook By Nancy E. Wolff, Allworth Communications, 2007, p. 55:
“
There is a vast body of photographs, including but not limited to publicity stills, that have no notice as to who may have created them.
Publicity Photos (star headshots) older publicity stills have usually not been copyrighted and since they have been disseminated to the public, they are generally considered public domain and therefore there is no necessity to clear them with the studio that produced them (if you can even determine who did).
”
Captions
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==Summary== Publicity photograph of George Maharis, taken on or before 1975. On the back of this photo, the play ''Steambath'' was supposed to be performed live in Forum Theatre in Summit, Illinois on Tuesday, April 29, 197...
File usage
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