German Luftwaffe Aerial Photographs

Going back to the original post, I found an image of Silloth airfield in Cumbria:
www.users.globalnet.co.uk/~rwbarnes/defence/sil-ae.htm

Regards, Justin

I think there are two issue here: Crown Copyright and copyright based on ownership and usage.

I am a professional graphic designer and use different photo libraries from time to time. They own images or act as agents for photographers/illustrators who have created images and want to market them. If you want to use one you have to pay a fee, and the licence is specific and limited, they retain copyright. The fee is based on a sliding scale depending on what it is for, where it is being used, size, print run, national or international etc. A full page ad in a national newspaper could be thousands per insertion, a small A6 black and white picture in a text book tens of pounds.

This is what the IWM or the RAFM are doing. They own physical copies of pictures and perhaps the negatives too. If you want to use their copy of the picture they will charge you for the "service", and claim copyright. Nowadays you will probably get a high resolution scan to use downloaded online rather than a copy print or transparency. They can also put limitations on how it is used and even deny permission in certain cases.

I have used the IWM for video sleeves on the Battle of Britain and the Battle of the Atlantic. It was easier to research suitable images from them in one place than try to track down pictures from disparate sources when I had a deadline to meet. Likewise I have used Novosti for pictures of Stalin and the Soviet Union for a different video series. Hulton Getty is another large source of historic images used in publishing. The Mary Evans Picture Library markets a lot of Victoriana and historical material. Out of copyright, but they have assembled the resource and you pay to use it.

If there are multiple copies of the same photograph in circulation, then the owners of those copies can use them as they wish if they are out of Crown Copyright, as far as I can see. The IWM would have to prove that you had used their copy; if you can produce the another physical copy or have permission from another picture holder there's not much they can do.

Another example: I have worked on a large Beatrix Potter project. The copyright holders of her illustrations and books are Frederick Warne, the publishers. The images are managed and licensed by another company called Copyrights on their behalf. Copyrights control and limit useage very tightly as this is an important brand, which they don't want to see compromised. But this is quite different from the IWM. The IWM is not managing the images on behalf of the Crown. If this were so it would be laid down explicitly in the guidelines from the MoD and OPSI.

There is another class of image called Royalty Free. You don't pay for these by usage, but simply a one-off fee for a collection or single image. After that you can use it how you want. The image libraries market these too - generic collections, which are fine to illustrate a trade magazine article but not Vogue.

I'm no copyright lawyer, but this is my understanding of how it all works in practice.

TJJ

Read this, particularly 1-3 & 8-10:

www.opsi.gov.uk/advice/crown-cop ... ic-records

And then this, and note the examples:

www.opsi.gov.uk/click-use/value- ... tion/index

From what I can ascertain through the legal speak, up until 1985 Crown Copyright was as we wish - older than 50 years and you can reproduce it as long as you attribute. After 1985, the government realised some commercial value in these records and in return for organising and providing indexing/searching capabilities charge you a license for using them. I think this is the case with the PRO/IWM. Their content falls under this "Value Added Licensing" scheme hence the requirement for a licensing fee to reproduce.

Just waded through this thread and still none the wiser.
Where can you obtain these Luftwaffe arial pictures from?