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: 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
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