Postcards

[woodjc]

I came across a collection of old photo-postcards in my fathers papers. These would all have been purchased well over fifty years ago. My understanding is that copyright in a photograph expires 50 years after the photo is taken. If there is any secondary copyright associated with the printing of these postcards I take it this too will have expired 50 years after the postcards are sold. Am I now free to restore these images and distribute them as I choose? I do plan to remove the trademark of the printer.
.........John

[Ladkyis]

Francis Frith still keeps the copyright for their postcards - I thought it was however many years after the death of the copyright holder and if that is a company I haven't a clue how it works other than the fact that Francis Frith still has it on their pictures

Ann

[woodjc]

This would appear to be the relevant section in the Canadian copyright act:

10. (1) Where the owner referred to in subsection (2) is a corporation, the term for which copyright subsists in a photograph shall be the remainder of the year of the making of the initial negative or plate from which the photograph was derived or, if there is no negative or plate, of the initial photograph, plus a period of fifty years.

English law is probably similar.

...........John