GLASS NEGATIVES GIL ELVGREN, NORMAN ROCKWELL, AND OTHERS

[Skubasteve1234]

Hey everyone I've seen the most help on this forum more than any other. I have currently come into a big collection of pin up glass negatives as well ad others, wondering a rough idea of value? I also have the idea of reusing the negatives for prints and other ideas but wondering what the copyright issues would be? I appreciate any answers or someone that can point me in the right direction thank you

 

[koraks]

what the copyright issues would be

I think that expires something like 70 years after the death of the maker. If you don't know the maker, you don't know whether/when they have died, so you'd have to take a guess at it. Given that you mention these are pin up photos, I'd also consider the ethical issues related to possible models or their children still being alive. Neither of these issues are necessarily dealbreakers, but might be good to take into consideration.

As to value, can't really help you there. Sex sells, as they say, and there's currently an appreciation of anything 'vintage', so I'm sure that what you've got there has some market value. How much, I couldn't say.

 

[Skubasteve1234]

I think that expires something like 70 years after the death of the maker. If you don't know the maker, you don't know whether/when they have died, so you'd have to take a guess at it. Given that you mention these are pin up photos, I'd also consider the ethical issues related to possible models or their children still being alive. Neither of these issues are necessarily dealbreakers, but might be good to take into consideration.

As to value, can't really help you there. Sex sells, as they say, and there's currently an appreciation of anything 'vintage', so I'm sure that what you've got there has some market value. How much, I couldn't say.

Most of the glass negatives i got were from brown and bigelow company and I have been doing some research and Elvgren copyright is own by them but the other artist unknown. I also have some bob pettes with the cars of yesterday. Also was wondering if i can I still make remakes not for resale or if I edit picture from negatives could I resell? As far as I know there might be a Marilyn Monroe I have found some of her calendars in the lot. With all that being said and that's another thing would the photographer own the copyright or the woman in the photo. I have been trying to do research but most things just say you have to someone or something famous but still no estimates as far as I can find.

Sorry for my poor English skills i type as i think fast and altogether haha, but yeah I appreciate the feedback

 

[Kino]

Hey everyone I've seen the most help on this forum more than any other. I have currently come into a big collection of pin up glass negatives as well ad others, wondering a rough idea of value? I also have the idea of reusing the negatives for prints and other ideas but wondering what the copyright issues would be? I appreciate any answers or someone that can point me in the right direction thank you

Copyright varies from Country to Country.

 

[koraks]

Yes, as @Kino says, it depends on where you are. Speaking in general, and keep in mind I do not have a legal background nor particular expertise in this area:

if i can I still make remakes not for resale

The criterion for what you can or can't do often depends on the question whether you'll publish, and I expect that commercial intentions in publishing are a main criterion for determining what may be actively hunted down. If you publish something and expect to earn money with it, the odds will be higher of any actual claims, while if you just publish something you IDK a private blog or a forum and a copyright holder of the material doesn't like it, the worst that you can reasonably expect is a request to take down the content.
Mind you, this is all assuming that there's a legitimate copyright holder in a position to come looking for this.

if I edit picture from negatives could I resell

I think there are plenty of instances of derivative works that can be sold and there have been some notorious court cases that AFAIK have generally held up the rights of people to make (and market) derivative works. So I'd expect you'd be safe in any case if you use these photos as elements in new works of your making.

would the photographer own the copyright or the woman in the photo

It depends. Firstly, copyrights may or may not have to be actively registered depending on where you are (EU: automatically registered, US: in a limited way AFAIK and more difficult to enforce if not actively registered). Secondly, copyrights may transfer from the original registrant or maker to a new party through several mechanisms. In a commercial context, it's common that e.g. publishers hold copyrights. Note that there's a distinction between holding the actual rights or being a licensee on certain works, although the latter case can also involve restrictions to other potential uses. In short - it depends on the specifics. It's a heck of a job to figure out what you can do with any given/found photo.

As to the person in the photo: there's such a thing as portrait rights and again, what they entail depends on jurisdiction. In some part of the world, portrait rights come quite close in terms of restrictiveness of publication and (re)-use of images to actual copyrights. But strictly speaking, portrait rights are NOT copyrights; the former are rights that protect a natural person's interest in their own likeness, while the latter protects the fruits of creative efforts of a person. So they're different in many ways, including legal implications. And there's also the ethical issue which I mentioned earlier.

If you're just a private individual who wants to make some prints from these plates and put them on your wall, there's no problem.
If you want to post scans of the plates on forums etc., your financial risk is likely very minimal, but there's some risk of someone bugging you because of it.
If you're trying to sell the actual plates, I don't think there's a problem because the image carrier as such is just a thing; what's at stake here are the rights to publication and commercialization of the actual images on the plates. So ironically, I don't think there's any limitation in making money by selling the collection or parts of it. It's then up to the new owner to figure out what they can and cannot do with the collection.
If you intend to make money by selling prints of the plates, especially if those prints are pretty much straight prints, then you may find yourself in a headlock with a party that claims copyrights to the image material - assuming such a party is around and in a position to put any work into it in the first place.

It all depends, depends, depends.