Note that it may still be copyrighted in jurisdictions that do not apply the rule of the shorter term for US works (depending on the date of the author's death), such as Canada (70 years p.m.a.), Mainland China (50 years p.m.a., not Hong Kong or Macao), Germany (70 years p.m.a.), Mexico (100 years p.m.a.), Switzerland (70 years p.m.a.), and other countries with individual treaties.
Additional source information:
This is a publicity photo taken to promote a film actor. As stated by film production expert Eve Light Honthaner in The Complete Film Production Handbook, (Focal Press, 2001 p. 211.):
"Publicity photos (star headshots) have traditionally not been copyrighted. Since they are disseminated to the public, they are generally considered public domain, and therefore clearance by the studio that produced them is not necessary."
Nancy Wolff, includes a similar explanation:
"There is a vast body of photographs, including but not limited to publicity stills, that have no notice as to who may have created them." (The Professional Photographer's Legal Handbook By Nancy E. Wolff, Allworth Communications, 2007, p. 55.)
Film industry author Gerald Mast, in Film Study and the Copyright Law (1989) p. 87, writes:
"According to the old copyright act, such production stills were not automatically copyrighted as part of the film and required separate copyrights as photographic stills. The new copyright act similarly excludes the production still from automatic copyright but gives the film's copyright owner a five-year period in which to copyright the stills. Most studios have never bothered to copyright these stills because they were happy to see them pass into the public domain, to be used by as many people in as many publications as possible."
Original upload log
The original description page was here. All following user names refer to en.wikipedia.
2010-09-01 20:22 Wikiwatcher1 565×595× (53326 bytes) ({{Information |Description={{en|1=Studio portrait photo of Carole Lombard taken for promotional use.}} |Source=MGM studio promo portrait |Author=MGM |Date=circa 1938|Permission= |other_versions= }} {{PD-Pre1964}} ==Additional copyright details:== Addit
Captions
Add a one-line explanation of what this file represents
{{Information |Description={{en|Studio portrait photo of Carole Lombard taken for promotional use.}} |Source=Transferred from [http://en.wikipedia.org en.wikipedia]; transfer was stated to be made by User:El Matador. |Date={{Date|2010|09|01}} (origina