No, this is not a photo of the Provo Pioneer Village but it down there somewhere in the city. Some time ago, I took several photos of the Provo Pioneer Village and posted them here on Walking Arizona. The Village was built and organized next to a Provo City Park by the Brigham Young Chapter of the Sons of the Utah Pioneers. The photos have not and will not be offered for sale. After the photos had been online for a couple of years, I got an angry comment from someone claiming ownership of the entire premises and demanding that I take down my photos. Since the Village is open to the public and there are no signs limiting photos, I had no notice that someone owned all the rights to the pioneer artifacts and re-creations on display. Too bad they didn't bother to post a sign saying no photos allowed. I was happy to give the Village a little publicity but in response, I think I have taken all the photos down.
Normally, unless posted otherwise, a public place can be photographed and the photograph sold without obtaining any specific permission. I am always careful not to include recognizable people in my photos unless they show a street scene or other very public place.
As to the Sons of the Utah Pioneers, I have about 15 or more great and great-great-grandparents who crossed the Plains and qualify as "pioneers" by arriving in the Salt Lake Valley before 1868. I have been asked many times to join a chapter of the National Society of the Sons of Utah Pioneers and have always deferred because of time constraints. Now, I suppose I have another reason for not joining this organization. I can't imagine the person that demanded that I take down my photos "owned" all of the objects in the Village but if he was speaking on behalf of the National Society of the Sons of Utah Pioneers, I suppose he could limit photographs under a claim of ownership but I failed to see any notice on the premises about photography being limited. I wonder if he knows how many photos of the Provo Pioneer Village there are online? A quick look showed me hundreds, if not thousands of photos of the Village. I guess he better get busy telling all these people to take down their photos.
The issue of copyright of photos is complex but the issue of taking photos in public places depends on the local definition of "public." Obviously, on military installations and other government areas, photography can be restricted or prohibited without specific permission. With a photograph, there is an issue of whether or not the photo was published. But in the case of a public attraction, all of the items on view are certainly published (put on public view) and some may be more than a hundred years old. However, the copyright law in the U.S. is that anything published that could be protected is now in the Public Domain if published before 1925. In my opinion, it would nearly impossible to prove that any of the items on public display as old artifacts could be claimed to be protected by copyright. In fact, any work (artifact) published before 1977 without a copyright notice is also in the Public Domain. So it would probably be necessary to put a notice on any more recent items that are still covered by copyright.
So why did I take all the photos down? Simple, I don't want to have anyone think that I intentionally or otherwise violated someone's claim to ownership or copyright. I have published, to the date of this post, 4497 photos without a previous claim of any nature involving copyright or whatever. I own the copyright to all these photos. They are my original work. Oh, by the way, if I missed a photo of anything in the Village, I will be glad to take it down. Let me know.
I suppose I do have to disclose at this point that I may have a subscription to the Sons of the Utah Pioneer's Pioneer magazine that was given to me as a gift but I have yet to see a copy arrive because it is published quarterly. I like the magazine, too bad I have a problem with the organization. I will be glad to give up my subscription if that is a problem for the Society also.
No comments:
Post a Comment