What I’m doing when I’m not doing anything else…
October 30th, 2007 — Meta
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October 29th, 2007 — Legal, Photography
October 19th, 2007 — Events, Music, Photography
Brett Dennen is playing the 9:30 Club in D.C. at 7:30 PM on 5 Nov 2007. If you’re a fan, tickets are only $20 and 9:30 is a terrific venue.
I’ll be there, taking in the sounds and shooting the show.
October 19th, 2007 — Legal, Photography
Ruth Suehle’s article on intellectual property, trademark and copyright as these concepts relate to photography, points out that “copyright law does protect architecture for buildings built after 1990.” Had no idea. The details can be found in U.S. Copyright Office Circular 41, which spells out the Scope of Protection:
An original design of a building embodied in any tangible medium of expression, including a building, architectural plans, or drawings, is subject to copyright protection as an “architectural work” under Section 102 of the Copyright Act, 17 USC, as amended on December 1, 1990. The work includes the overall form as well as the arrangement and composition of spaces and elements in the design but does not include individual standard features or design elements that are functionally required.
The term building means structures that are habitable by humans and intended to be both permanent and stationary, such as houses and office buildings, and other permanent and stationary structures designed for human occupancy, including but not limited to churches, museums, gazebos, and garden pavilions.
The circular elaborates on those works that cannot be registered, to include dams, bridges and walkways. It also explains in only slightly more detail what is meant by “individual standard features or design elements that are functionally required:”
Standard configurations of spaces, and individual standard features, such as windows, doors, and other staple building components, as well as functional elements whose design or placement is dictated by utilitarian concerns.
So, one could not photograph and sell a picture of a qualified building, but one could do so with pictures of the doors, windows and other oft-photographed features. In a way, this makes sense–photographs of individual features do not capture the whole of the architectural concept. On the other hand, such features are sometimes nearly as well-known as the structures to which they belong.