Editing Incubator escapee wiki:Help desk/Archive 10 (section)

== Another Copyright question ==

I'm wanting to add a picture to a Wikipedia article, but I'm not sure about the copyright. The image is a scan/digital copy of a painting which is out of copyright. But does the copyright of the original work apply to the digital image, or does the digital image have it's own copyright? Thanks. [[User:David Johnson|David Johnson]] 23:21, 31 Oct 2004 (UTC)
:I would need some more details to be sure, but the original copyright does not apply to a digital image copy. If the copyright were still in effect, than use of the digital copy would be infringing. As for the digital image, it is hard to say. Just about anything can gain copyright if you are willing to pay for it. If it is a picture of a picture with nothing else included, I would say it's very unlikely that a copyright would have been obtained. Plus, if there is nothing in the digital image but the picture, it would be very challenging to prove the right to a copyright as it contains no original work and others could take the same picture and their picture would not infringe. Bottom line, unless the image contains something other than the picture, I'd say you are safe, but I would need more information to say for sure. [[User:Skyler1534|Skyler]][[User_talk:Skyler1534|'''1534''']] 15:43, Nov 2, 2004 (UTC)
:: Well the page containing the image is [http://www.rainfall.com/posters/landscape/22384.htm here]. It's actually a digital copy of a painted photograph dated 1890 - so there's definitely no copyright on the original work. Surely you can't have a copyright on a copy of someone else's work, even if the original work is out of copyright? [[User:David Johnson|David Johnson]] 17:25, 2 Nov 2004 (UTC)
:::The original work would not be under copyright. However, the image you are referring to is being used for the purpose of advertisement on a commercial website. Often times, the company that created the website will hold rights on every image used. It could possibly be considered [[Fair use|fair use]] as historically significant (which is how the company describes its use of some of the images in its disclaimer), but I would recommend contacting the webmaster prior to using it. [[User:Skyler1534|Skyler]][[User_talk:Skyler1534|'''1534''']] 17:32, Nov 3, 2004 (UTC)