Copyright of Photographs before December 1945
Ownership of photographs taken before 1 January 1945
The only way in which copyright can exist for such photographs is where it has been revived.
For such photographs, copyright would have expired on 31 December 1994 or earlier. However, if such
a photograph was protected on 1 July 1995 in another European Economic Area (EEA) state under legislation
relating to copyright or related rights, copyright would have been revived from 1 January 1996 to the end
of the term applying to photographs taken on or after 1 January 1996. In deciding whether a photograph
was protected in another EEA state, it is, of course, the law of that state which must be interpreted
and the criteria used to decide whether a photograph should receive any protection at all would need
to be considered very carefully. See
UK Intellectual Property
Office
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In relation to photographs made before August 1, 1989, previous UK copyright laws are applied to determine
who is the copyright owner and for how long. There is no copyright in photographs made before 31 December
1945. "
Henry Lydiate 2003
Cottingley Fairy Photographs
The original negatives
held at Leeds University (Special collections) and the set of photographs owned by the National Media Museum may be subject
to reproductive copyright.
