lawofsines
New Member
Hello,
I live in Nova Scotia, Canada. I am an amateur guitarist and I have been arranging some of Robert Schumann's (1810-1856) piano pieces for the guitar. I would like have them published, and I may self-publish them, and/or create an ebook. I would like to include some photographs and drawings of Robert Schumann and perhaps some musical instruments from that era or perhaps geographical/city photograghs and drawings.
I have limited legal knowledge. My understanding of copyrights on photos and drawings is that, in the U.S., they expire 70 years after the death of the originator, or 95 years after publication, or 120 after creation. In Canada, it's 50 years after the death, or 50 years after publication, or 75 years from creation. (According to a wikipedia page on copyright lengths for various countries.)
So it would appear that any photographs or drawings from his era would be allowable for use without copyright concerns.
My question are about how to legally obtain them. If I find a photograph that was taken 150 years ago on the internet, can I use it? What about a scan of an old photograph or drawing from a book I have (and the book is recently published)? My guess is that if an image has been substantially 'altered' (for example, some photo editing software was used to create a mosaic tile effect), then that image is under a new copyright. But if the image (photo or drawing) is reproduced basically unaltered in a recent publication, can it be scanned and used by me? Also, there are drawings in his originally published piano scores that are in the public domain and available from sites such as the International Music Score Library Project. Are these fine to use? What about old images from museums that are online? Is crediting the source at all important?
As you can tell, I'm just trying to sort out how I can legally acquire photographs and images to use in my musical publication. I expect to sell less than 100 copies, or I may possibly give it away, or give away the ebook and sell printed copies, but I would like to feel the images were acquired properly. I have no interest in buying photographs or drawing from a company that sells them royalty free.
Thank you for any advice, corrections, thoughts, etc.
I live in Nova Scotia, Canada. I am an amateur guitarist and I have been arranging some of Robert Schumann's (1810-1856) piano pieces for the guitar. I would like have them published, and I may self-publish them, and/or create an ebook. I would like to include some photographs and drawings of Robert Schumann and perhaps some musical instruments from that era or perhaps geographical/city photograghs and drawings.
I have limited legal knowledge. My understanding of copyrights on photos and drawings is that, in the U.S., they expire 70 years after the death of the originator, or 95 years after publication, or 120 after creation. In Canada, it's 50 years after the death, or 50 years after publication, or 75 years from creation. (According to a wikipedia page on copyright lengths for various countries.)
So it would appear that any photographs or drawings from his era would be allowable for use without copyright concerns.
My question are about how to legally obtain them. If I find a photograph that was taken 150 years ago on the internet, can I use it? What about a scan of an old photograph or drawing from a book I have (and the book is recently published)? My guess is that if an image has been substantially 'altered' (for example, some photo editing software was used to create a mosaic tile effect), then that image is under a new copyright. But if the image (photo or drawing) is reproduced basically unaltered in a recent publication, can it be scanned and used by me? Also, there are drawings in his originally published piano scores that are in the public domain and available from sites such as the International Music Score Library Project. Are these fine to use? What about old images from museums that are online? Is crediting the source at all important?
As you can tell, I'm just trying to sort out how I can legally acquire photographs and images to use in my musical publication. I expect to sell less than 100 copies, or I may possibly give it away, or give away the ebook and sell printed copies, but I would like to feel the images were acquired properly. I have no interest in buying photographs or drawing from a company that sells them royalty free.
Thank you for any advice, corrections, thoughts, etc.
