copyright purchase
I recently purchased some
photographic film negatives from a
newspaper that were shot in the
1930s-1960 range. coming from the
newspaper i am guessing they are
works for hire and that the paper
owns the copyright and not the
photographers. by purchasing the
original negatives have i also
purchased the copyright?
Re: copyright purchase
Nope. You purchased the negatives... not the right to use the images, or even to make prints. "Work-for-hire" is a more complicated analysis, and much depends on whether the photographers were freelance, or employees of the newspaper. In any case, you need assignments of copyright if you plan to exploit these negatives.
