Dear Madeline, 

You may use my email if you would like (if there are any typos, please 
correct them).  By the way, some copyright data can be searched via the 
Copyright Office website.  The search system is very old and not the 
easiest to use. 

Here is what I found on this sculpture in the copyright database.  Since I 
am not an expert with this database, you should  ask the specialists at 
copyinfo@loc.gov what this means for your needs and what other research 
might be required to learn what you need about it. 

VAu-265-428                  (COHM) 
TITL: Marines raising flag on IWO-JIMA. 
PHYS: Sculpture. 
CLNA: acFelix  DeWeldon , 1917- 
DCRE: 1993           DREG: 20Aug93 
ECIF: 5/S 

Yours truly, 

Elizabeth Brown

Madeline, 

A post script from a professional colleague in my program.  Start with the U.S. Copyright office on the web, but I'm sure you have looked at that, right? 

Also:  Harpers Ferry Center (www.nps.gov/hpc).  They have a historic photos center with posted copyright information about that subject.  Their expert on historic photo copyrights most likely knows a lot about the subject in general. 
Again, best to you in your endeavors. 
KW 
----------------------------------------------------------- 
Dear Madeline, 

    I am one of the NPS professionals who received your inquiry that was forwarded from Mr. Butowsky in Park History. 

    Although I can't answer your specific questions about monuments or other historic properties within Parks, such as the one you referenced in your e-mail, (I am in a cultural resources outreach programs which provides guidance and the rehab tax credit for preserving historic buildings in communities across the country) here is is a list of web sites that may be of general help in your web project. 

Sincerely, 
Kay Weeks 
Heritage Preservation Services 
http://www2.cr.nps.gov/ 

     Stanford University's "Copyright and Fair Use" website, the best comprehensive site I've found, at: http://fairuse.stanford.edu/

     Library of Congress's copyright website (the U.S. Copyright Office is a part of the LOC): http://www.loc.gov/copyright/

     "The Copyright Page" at  http://www.benedict.com/ 

Finally, this web site:      http://www.webreview.com/98/01/02/webmaster/index.html
 

____________________Reply Separator____________________ 
Subject:    Re: Children's Art Rights Website 
Author: Harry Butowsky 
Date:       3/15/00 10:39 AM 

     Madeline: I am not familiar with this subject but I will forward your questions to other National Park Service offices that may be able to  help.   Good luck with your project.  Harry Butowsky 
 

     Dear Ms. Gesslein:

     Joan Bacharach has forwarded your questions to me. I fear that none  of the questions you have asked have simple answers.  NPS  collections are held by the 379 parks throughout the United States. A small amount of our historical materials are also housed at both  the Library of Congress and the National Archives. 

     The Library of Congress largely holds materials from the Historic American Building Survey and the Historic American Engineering  Record (HABS/HAER) and some audiovisual materials transferred by parks, such as early Edison sound recordings.  The Library of  Congress (http://www.loc.gov) and National Archives  (http://www.nara.gov) Web sites describe what they hold.

 Our Website (http://www.cr.nps.gov) describes what we hold under our Park Profiles Section.  We also have a number of changing exhibits online that feature our collections. 

As to your other questions, copyright research is very much like detective work. It involves:

     * finding out who made the materials under consideration, when they were made, whether or not they were published or distributed, (and if materials were published, was a notice of copyright  protection notice attached?) 

     * whether or not the individual was an employee creating the work on his employment hours or a work-for-hire contractor at the time of the creation of the work, in which case the rights went to the employer.

     * whether the individual was a federal employee, in which case  there are no copyrights and the work is automatically in the public domain.

     * whether or not the potential copyright protection has lapsed due  to age, time, or incorrect rights management procedures.

     I regret I can't undertake this research to answer the questions about the various sculptures and photographs you are wondering  about.  Nor do I have the pertinent information on the artists involved.  There is no master copyright file for the NPS's almost 100 million items which we can check.  Copyrights are held by the 379 individual parks.  If it is important to you to locate these  facts, there are copyright search services you can hire, or you can undertake this work on your own, once you have the pertinent information.  Searching down copyrights is much like genealogical research - time consuming and not terribly speedy. 

     One short cut you might try is the Web.  Have you done any Web research to see if the creators have web sites? If this doesn't pan out, you might try your public library.  Consider doing some  library research on your creators (try Contemporary Sculptors or Contemporary Photographers or other reference books to see if you can easily track down the artists.)  That is where I would start.

     To know if Rosenthal's photograph is copyrighted you would have to know his status when it was taken.  If a marine, he could still  have taken it on his personal time with his personal camera and  retained the copyright.  The only way to know for certain would be to either contact him or his heirs directly, to contact the museum  holding the material directly, or to try to gather the facts and  figure it out for yourself. The same is true for the sculpture.

     You could certainly check on the Library of Congress Copyright Office Web site to see if they have registrations for the  materials.  Although, not all copyrighted materials are  registered--particularly since the 1970s.

     I'm not clear on what you are asking me about links and  "information about this Web site...and Is there someone at the Park  Service who could write a bit about how students can write to this  web site..." 

     Are you talking about two different Web sites?  If you would like to request a link from the NPS Web site to your Web site, you would have to speak with Terry Childs, our Cultural Resources Team Web coordinator.  Terry will be able to answer your questions on linking policies.  When students wish to download and reuse  materials from NPS Web site pages, my understanding is that they  would have to clear it with the individual offices and parks who hold the information.  Terry will be able to give you the latest information on this.  I will send a copy to Terry in this message.

     Best wishes.

     Diane Vogt-O'Connor
     National Park Service 
     Museum Management Program