 Todd S. Jenkins |
Legal Question: Deceased Photographers I'm a writer who occasionally photographs the subjects about which I'm writing, but I know very little thus far about the legalities of this end of the business. I'm currently writing the biography of a jazz pianist and archiving his memorabilia for the estate. In these files, I've found several dozen excellent photographs, mostly 8x10 prints and most of which have never been published. Several of them were taken by photographers who are no longer living, and thus far, I have been unable to find any information about their estates in order to request permission to use them in the book. Some of these photos are magnificent, and I hate the idea of them sitting in a file and never seen by the public just because I can't nail down who holds the copyright. 1) Is there some handy resource I'm overlooking that would help me track down the estates of these photographers, besides the Internet, which has turned up nothing? 2) If I have exhausted and documented all reasonable attempts to identify the estates and contact them for permission, is it acceptable to claim fair use, run the photos, and credit the pianist's estate for providing them to me for publication? I've seen estates credited before but don't know the circumstances behind those credits. 3) Some of the photos were taken at a taping of "The Dinah Shore Show" in about 1965. It is clear that they were taken by an anonymous friend or family member of the musician(s), not by an NBC staffer. Therefore, I'm assuming that I don't need to contact NBC to use them even though they were shot at a televised event. Is that correct?
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Jon Close |
If you're doing this professionally - with the goal of having this book published - you really should contact a copyright attorney.
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