Quote:
Originally Posted by sreader3
Copyright lasts 75 years for "works for hire" (e.g. August 24, 1941) or life of the author (e.g. photographer) plus 50 years for non-"works for hire" so most of these negatives should be public domain, no?
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I don't think they are considered public domain but this stuff gets murky at best when trying to determine what is allowed and what is not. At the very least we've got licensing from MLB that allows us to use the team logos.
Rights to sell and profit from photos printed of the individual players comes down to their Rights of Publicity based upon which state they passed away in, and if their Rights of Publicity are still in tact we would need to have individual deals with each players estate in order to cover ourselves.
So, there are some players we just might not be able to do, like Joe Dimaggio unfortunately, because he passed away in California and his Rights of Publicity are still in tact. So, his estate makes the rules and Photo File does not currently have a deal with them.