
Unseen 9/11 photos bought at house clearance sale - yitchelle
https://www.bbc.com/news/technology-48689783
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djmobley
Previous discussion:
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=20199667](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=20199667)

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jonah-archive
Here's a link to a Twitter thread where my coworker Jason Scott (textfiles)
talks about the origin of the photos/etc:
[https://twitter.com/textfiles/status/1138537238537625601](https://twitter.com/textfiles/status/1138537238537625601)

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phil248
I highly recommend people visit the 9/11 Museum in NYC if you ever have the
chance. It's exceptionally well done and comprehensive.

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unreal37
Is there a discussion anywhere on how it's legal to publish these copyrighted
photos without permission of the author?

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dlivingston
Given that authorship is unknown, this comment seems overly pedantic.

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unreal37
[Edit to add: I'm going to assume he's still in contact with the family from
some of his twitter comments, and that they'll benefit from any money made
from this. So they own the copyright and they'll benefit from any money made
here.]

Maybe. There's historical significance here for sure.

But the author is not unknown. Jason Scott says "he's dead" so the author is
known to be dead. And copyright just doesn't evaporate when you're dead. His
heirs own the copyright.

And he's also discussing having people contact him for "reproduction rights".
He doesn't own the rights. Am I wrong? IANAL.

Interesting cache of photos though.

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bb88
Or the heirs could just sue. See Vivian Maier:

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vivian_Maier](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vivian_Maier)

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mars4rp
People have weird hobbies!

Edit: I mean he went and bought some random CDs, He discovered this really
great photos but how long he is doing this for? How many CDs he bought and
looked at?

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djsumdog
Potentially dangerous hobby. What if one of those CDs had child porn on it and
it was in a stack he didn't look at/index. Then some Police have a warrant for
something unrelated, find the CDs and charge him.

Possession of such material is a strict liability crime. Intent doesn't
matter, nor even knowledge that you have the material. That's what happened in
the case of Paul Reubens (Pee Wee Herman).

~~~
camjohnson26
What a dangerous law. All a bad actor has to do is plant incriminating
material on a target’s computer and they can be put away for years.

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whamlastxmas
It's even worse in the UK. Someone can put an encrypted file on a thumb drive
and put it in your belongings. You're required by law to give passwords in the
UK and if you're unable to, you just go to prison.

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skwirl
Finding photos on a CD that you bought at a house clearance sale does not
magically transfer their copyright to you and give you the right to publish
them in the media.

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yitchelle
I wonder what their legal status would be if the photo's owners were not
contactable or identifiable? In the article, it said

"Dr Burgess said he and Mr Scott had so far been unsuccessful in tracking down
the photographer or any relatives."

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Bluecobra
My guess is that you will need to wait 70 years for it to enter the public
domain or until any heirs are found. If you decide to sell a book with these
photos, you risk of some rightful heir coming out of the woodwork and suing
you for damages. The case of Vivian Maier comes to mind.

