Under U.S. copyright law you can't copyright the title of a book. You
can't copyright a name. But, whose copyright violation would it be if
a stonemason carved a copyrighted bit on a headstone and a photographer
made a picture of it? Or, would it be fair use if only a short passage?
What would you like on your tombstone? ©?
Cheers,
Rich Mason
http://richmason.com
On Saturday, January 1, 2005, at 04:49 AM, Bob Talbot wrote:
Presumably someone holds copyright to the words written on
gravestones?
Either the stonemason or the family member who commissioned it I
guess.
Presumably, apart from very old generic messages (such as "Rest In
Peace") someone should be earning royalties.
Is it any defence to claim that a photograph of a copyrighted piece of
text is any different from a textual copy of it? Is it? That is, if
I use someone's poem on my home page without permission I'm surely
breaching their copyright but am I still if I portray a photography of
an object in a public place bearing a transcript of the same.
The world can become a very silly place if you look at it in a silly
way ;o)
