2012/8/20 James Heilman <jmh...@gmail.com>: > A question about copyright, who owns the copyright on Xrays and are they > even copyrightable? I have uploaded a few of them and no one seems to know > the answer. I guess the options would be: > > 1) They are in the public domain > https://open.umich.edu/wiki/Casebook#Radiograph_.28X-Ray.29 and > http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Copyright_law_of_the_United_Kingdom#Works_eligible_for_protection > > 2) The X ray tech who took the image > 3) The person / institution who paid to have the image taken > a) The HMO or patient if in the USA > b) The government if in many parts of the world > 4) The doctor who ordered the image > 5) The doctor who read the image > 6) The hospital / shareholders of the hospital who owns the equipment > 7) All of the above / some of the above / none of the above >
I head a discussion about it (actually about mainly histopalogical microscopic pictures of human tissues but also about other medical documentary photos) with some lawers and the conclusion was, that such a pictures from legal POV are not different than just any others. So: a) if the picture is taken automatically by machine in routine way (in case of X-ray, NMR and some other techinques this is usually atomatic and routine) - they are not copyrightable, as this is not any creative work. b) if the picture is taken by human using machine (for example USG or pictures taken with in-body camera) - the situation is just like with normal picture taken by camera - the author is the person who took the picture c) if the author is an employee who took a picture as part of his/her normal job obligations the copyrights (at least in Poland) belongs automatically to the employer. (usually hospital or other medical institution). d) if the picture was made as a work by hire (for example in private USG operator) - who holds the copyright belongs what is writen in operator regulations - and if the regulations do not contains any points regarding transfer of copyright - it belongs to the operator. Of course, except copyright owner agreement - publication of such the pictures need acceptation by the subject of them - as it is usually a part of medical documentation which - at least in Poland - is confidential. -- Tomek "Polimerek" Ganicz http://pl.wikimedia.org/wiki/User:Polimerek http://www.ganicz.pl/poli/ http://www.cbmm.lodz.pl/work.php?id=29&title=tomasz-ganicz _______________________________________________ Wikimedia-l mailing list Wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-l
