COPYRIGHT INFORMATION
Good news is that one of the leading bus photographers of the early post-war period has assigned his copyright to the Trust that governs the Museum.
Most people understand that possession of a photograph does not give you the copyright. Less widely appreciated is that, unless you are the photographer, mere possession of the negative does not give it to you either. Copyright is a concept that is abstract from physical material and is a member of a family of legal rights, nowadays known generally as 'intellectual property' rights which also includes patents and trade marks. When a copyright owner dies, the rights pass to the next of kin unless, for example, a photographer has previously assigned the copyright or does so in his or her will.
Copyright assigned to the Trust means that the Museum can benefit from photo reproduction rights for many years in the future and sell copies if we so wish. The Museum readily opens its archives to established authors to the subsequent benefit of thousands of enthusiasts.
For those interested in helping the Museum in this respect, to be effective an assignment must be in writing. The document containing the assignment must clearly state that copyright to your photographs is being assigned to the Birmingham and Midland Motor Omnibus Trust, and be signed by the person assigning the copyright. There is no other special requirement as to the form of the document. Do get in touch with Malcolm Keeley if you need to know more.
Malcolm Keeley
The Editor has three comments to add to these notes.
The first is that copyright is a common law right; it applies automatically without any legal requirement to register ownership, unlike patents for instance. However, the Copyright Act of 1911, and subsequent legislation, clarifies certain rights and obligations. For example, a copy of any publication available in the UK – any book, pamphlet and periodical – has to be deposited with the British Library and certain other National Libraries. This applies to publications as small as the one you are reading.
Secondly, the rights described are valid where photographs (or drawings or other documents) are produced on a private basis. However, when something is created as part of someone’s job, the intellectual property rights invariably belong to the employer rather than the employee. These days this is usually written in to the terms of one’s contract of employment. (Although, apparently, BMMO used to encourage its design staff to come up with innovative ideas by sharing patent applications with the individual engineers.)
The third point is that the time limit on copyright has been changed in recent years. In the UK, copyright used to belong to the originator’s successors for 100 years, while lesser limits applied in other countries. The limit has now been standardised within the European Union at 75 years.
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