Dumb question about photos.

[drc]

That you own the negative doesn't automatically give you the rights to the image. You can buy negatives from a photographer and the sale includes the rights. However, in other cases you are just buying the negatives as pieces of memorabilia with no rights of reproduction.

As already noted with many antique negatives, the copyrights have run out so you can do what you want.

With the negatives you are talking about, you likely won't own the rights to the image but will be the only one to make a quality photo of the image-- and certainly will be the only one to make photos directly from the original negative.

These types of negatives are usually valued as collectibles items in and of themselves. Some collectors might make photos from them, while many will not. It's like with a 1950 Bowman lithograph printing plate. The plate will have value as a piece of rare memorabilia, but likely no one is going to print more cards with it.

[sbfinley]

Cool. Thanks.

[drc]

For the record, it wasn't a dumb question at all. As this thread show, the answer isn't simple.

Also, I've seen auctions of modern negatives by official MLB photographers that included the rights to the images. So those would be cases where the auction winner would own the images.