After the National Portrait Gallery: Can There Copyright in Exact Photographic Copies?

13 Pages Posted: 21 Feb 2020

Date Written: August 26, 2011

Abstract

In March 2009, a Wikipedia editor named Derrick Coetzee downloaded several thousand digital images of paintings from the National Portrait Gallery's website and uploaded them to Wikipedia in order to illustrate pages of their respective subjects. In July of that year, lawyers acting for the gallery sent him a cease and desist letter, alleging (inter alia) infringement of the gallery's copyright.

Did the National Portrait Gallery have a case? If they did, does it make sense that copyright law should permit such a claim?

Keywords: copyright

Suggested Citation

Davey, Francis, After the National Portrait Gallery: Can There Copyright in Exact Photographic Copies? (August 26, 2011). Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=2610714 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.2610714

Francis Davey (Contact Author)

University of Strathclyde ( email )

16 Richmond Street
Glasgow 1XQ, Scotland G1 1XQ
United Kingdom

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