Regarding Crown Copyright, there are two things to note:
1. Published Crown copyright material has protection for 50 years from date of publication.
2. No unpublished material will lose its copyright protection until January 1, 2040. As per the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
I have had a longer discussion with IWM about their fees and their copyright claim, and it seems they insist their materials belong to them.
This is a direct quote from a mail i recieved from the MOD Directorate of Intellectual Property Rights Copyright Unit (DIPR-CC).
“Any Crown Copyright photos/film dating from WW11 would now be out of copyright in the UK”
This is a copy of my correspondence with IWM:
“As noted in my previous email, the duration of Crown Copyright is 50
years and such material older than this is indeed out of copyright. The
Imperial War Museum as the owners and holders of this material (which
involves, amongst numerous other responsibilities, conservation and
access) licences it for a wide range of uses. I attach our standard
Terms and Conditions which will perhaps help clarify this.
If I may explain more fully: This Second World War RAF material is in
the ownership of the Imperial War Museum and released under licence to
the DVD distribution company. The DVD produced using the material
licenced from the Imperial War Museum has a copyright in its own right
(in a similar way as a television programme using such material would
have its own copyright ) and may only be used for the purposes stated on
the DVD sleeve and box. By purchasing the DVD the purchaser agrees the
terms of sale as detailed on the DVD sleeve and box – in effect, a
contract – and DVDs containing our material limit the use to private
home use only.”
It thus appears that there is another copyright attached to new use of the materials, such as IWM posting them on a website. This new copyright is concerned with the website content, rather than the actual images.
The same goes if the images were printed in a book, then its protected by the copyright of the book – although the actual image is no longer protected.
All a bit too complicated and made to squeeze money out of people. The material should be public domain, as its funded by the British public and no longer have a military function.
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