Randy,
Thank you to you and Jan for the detailed responses on this issue. I have two questions, however.
1. If only the copyright owner can assert copyright, does that mean that the copyright dies with the owner if he hasn't passed it on? I have photos that my father took. There was no formal pass on of copyright between us, but I have assumed that I have the right through inheritance.
2. I have been around photography for more than 50 years, although I have never done any darkroom work. How does one copy a negative? Do you somehow photograph the negative or is there a contact method for doing it? I always thought a negative was a one time thing.
The computer world and digital photography has changed all that. There are many things that can be done with photographs now that weren't even possible in the analog era.
Bill Barber Gravois Mills, MO Mon Mar 5, 2012 10:16 pm (PST)
Jan is right. To summarily label an eBay seller to be in violation of copyright law might be slanderous without any proof other than a broad, reused eBay description. Further, only the copyright owner can assert copyright ownership. Not a casual bystander.
Unless you know the intentions under which the original or copy negative were bought, acquired, traded or sold, it is merely hyperbolic speculation on the intent and legal doctrine this seller is operating under.
Lemonadesqueeze can sell any negative and doesn't have to detail anything unless he/she knows the item is a copy and even then, how did he/she derive that this subject negative is in fact a copy? In addition, a "copy negative" could fall under a derivative work, another can of worms. And there is no law requiring a reproduction to be labeled as such. It is an ethical issue, not legal.
Most every prolific rail photographer with a darkroom traded negatives and prints. Corbin, Griffith, Hardy, Stringham and a hundred more traded, sold and gave away negatives.
Many of these negatives were copy negatives but a lot of negatives were exchanged for other original negatives. The only way to know for sure is to compare emulsion numbers on the film. And that only works if the emulsion number is on the negative in question. Basically, no one makes copy negatives any more. If can be done at a lab but it is very expensive and not something for eBay.
Most all the prolific photographers wanted to share their work with others and took steps to see that the material they had was shared with others instead of being rat-holed in a basement for no one to ever see. They excelled at disseminating information on a mass basis - think analog social media.
There is no excuse for not asking questions of the seller. But don't believe the seller has the necessary knowledge to make the statements they profess. eBay is cloaked in caveat emptor. And sometimes that works out to the buyers' advantage.
BTW - The negatives I have purchased from Lemonadesqueeze have not been copy negatives even though they were described as such and the emulsion numbers supported it.
Randy Danniel
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