Note that it may still be copyrighted in jurisdictions that do not apply the rule of the shorter term for US works (depending on the date of the author's death), such as Canada (70 years p.m.a.), Mainland China (50 years p.m.a., not Hong Kong or Macao), Germany (70 years p.m.a.), Mexico (100 years p.m.a.), Switzerland (70 years p.m.a.), and other countries with individual treaties.
Additional source information:
This is a publicity photo taken to promote a film actor. As stated by film production expert Eve Light Honthaner in The Complete Film Production Handbook, (Focal Press, 2001 p. 211.):
"Publicity photos (star headshots) have traditionally not been copyrighted. Since they are disseminated to the public, they are generally considered public domain, and therefore clearance by the studio that produced them is not necessary."
Nancy Wolff, includes a similar explanation:
"There is a vast body of photographs, including but not limited to publicity stills, that have no notice as to who may have created them." (The Professional Photographer's Legal Handbook By Nancy E. Wolff, Allworth Communications, 2007, p. 55.)
Film industry author Gerald Mast, in Film Study and the Copyright Law (1989) p. 87, writes:
"According to the old copyright act, such production stills were not automatically copyrighted as part of the film and required separate copyrights as photographic stills. The new copyright act similarly excludes the production still from automatic copyright but gives the film's copyright owner a five-year period in which to copyright the stills. Most studios have never bothered to copyright these stills because they were happy to see them pass into the public domain, to be used by as many people in as many publications as possible."
Kristin Thompson, committee chairperson of the for Cinema and Media Studiesarchive copy at the Wayback Machine writes in the conclusion of a 1993 conference with cinema scholars and editors, that they "expressed the opinion that it is not necessary for authors to request permission to reproduce frame enlargements. . . [and] some trade presses that publish educational and scholarly film books also take the position that permission is not necessary for reproducing frame enlargements and publicity photographs."[1]archive copy at the Wayback Machine
The original description page was here. All following user names refer to en.wikipedia.
2011-01-16 04:35 Wikiwatcher1 1590×2000× (403019 bytes) {{commons ok}} {{Information |Article = Fred Astaire |Description = Studio publicity still for film ''Daddy Long Legs'' |Author = Studio publicity still |Date = 1955 |Source =[http://www.doctormacro.com/Images/Astaire,%20
Captions
The dancer Fred Astaire, doing a livid jump during a dance performance, in front of a white background. He's wearing a white shirt, an untied tie, and gray pants.
{{Information |Description={{en|Studio publicity still for film ''Daddy Long Legs''.}}<br/> |Source=Transferred from [http://en.wikipedia.org en.wikipedia]; transfer was stated to be made by User:El Matador.<br/> (Original text : ''[http://www.doctorm
File usage
The following pages on the English Wikipedia use this file (pages on other projects are not listed):