Wednesday, November 12, 2003

Stealing Raul

Anita Rust, namesake of my companion blog, is an anagram of my last name. Simone Weil wrote, at one point, under the semi-anagramatic pseudonym, Emile Novis. Last night, after getting a blog upgrade, I wanted to try uploading images. I thought a photo of Simone Weil might be nice, assuming them to be in public domain. SO, through Google images, I found any number of sites that had posted a particular, quite famous photo of Weil, and assumed I could use it too.

Then I began to wonder whether this was actually kosher -- I may not be mooching off Weil's estate, but have I mooched off a website's labor in scanning and putting up her image ? Then I learned that a photo's copyright lasts 70 years after the photographer's death ! Oh dear, oh dear, I thought. And pulled the image off the site. Adieu, Emile.

But Raul Stanati -- that's an entirely different story.

He's my Dad. Anagrammed, of course.



He's, if not in PUBLIC domain, in MY DOMAIN. (Not to mention the Implicit Paternal Permission Stipulation, Paragraph 10, Section 23A, Clause 3.)

AND, it turns out, there are sites that allow fair use of wonderful images, with the appropriate citations. See below:





The Great Wave at Kanagawa (from a Series of Thirty-six Views of Mount Fuji), Edo period (1615–1868), ca. 1831–33
Katsushika Hokusai (Japanese, 1760–1849); Published by Eijudo
Japan, Polychrome ink and color on paper; 10 1/8 x 14 15/16 in. (25.7 x 37.9 cm) (Oban size) H. O. Havemeyer Collection, Bequest of Mrs. H. O. Havemeyer, 1929 (JP1847) www.metmuseum.org








photo courtesy of NASA hubble image gallery

No comments: