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File:Photo portrait of Harper Lee (To Kill a Mockingbird dust jacket, 1960).jpg

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Summary

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Description Truman Capote's photo portrait of Harper Lee from the back cover of the first-edition dust jacket for Lee's novel To Kill a Mockingbird.
Date
Source Scan of the image from "More than Five Decades After To Kill a Mockingbird, Harper Lee Will Publish a Second Novel" at Vogue (direct link to jpg). Retouched by uploader.
Author Photo credited to Truman Capote.
Permission
(Reusing this file)

No permission is required.

  1. First, the photo is a mechanical scan/photocopy of the original cover and does not qualify for independent copyright protection.
  2. Second, the photo was first published prior to 1978 without a valid copyright notice. To Kill a Mockingbird was first published in 1960; the hardcover book itself carried a copyright notice, so its contents remain copyrighted. However, the first-edition dust jacket did not carry a separate copyright notice. The photo on the back did not have a copyright notice of its own, either. According to The Compendium of U.S. Copyright Office Practices: Chapter 2200, § 2207.1(C) at p. 15:
"A notice of copyright on the dust jacket of a book is not an acceptable notice for the book, because the dust jacket is not permanently attached to the book. Likewise, a notice appearing in a book is not an acceptable notice for the dust jacket or any material appearing on that dust jacket, even if the book refers to the jacket or material appearing on the jacket."

Numerous sources can be used to verify the dust jacket's (and the photo's) lack of a copyright notice:

And so on.

Keep in mind that the pre-1989 requirements for copyright notice were highly formalistic and, other than a few enumerated exceptions, required these three elements:

  1. "The symbol © or the word 'Copyright' or the abbreviation 'Copr.' or an acceptable variant such as "(c)";
  2. "The year of first publication for the work"; and
  3. "The name of the copyright owner, or an abbreviation by which the name can be recognized, or a generally known alternative designation of the owner."
If just one of these elements is omitted, the work is deemed to be published without notice and is not eligible for copyright protection. Neither the year "1960" nor a copyright symbol (or any acceptable variant) appear anywhere on the dust jacket. Credits like "Truman Capote" underneath the photo, "Jacket design by Shirley Smith" do not meet the requirements, nor do the identifications of the publisher and author.
Other versions
Image extraction process This file has an extracted image: Photo portrait of Harper Lee (To Kill a Mockingbird dust jacket, 1960) (cropped).jpg.
lang=en
This is a retouched picture, which means that it has been digitally altered from its original version. Modifications made by Blz 2049.

Licensing

[edit]
The photo portrait and the scan
This image is in the public domain because it is a mere mechanical scan or photocopy of a public domain original, or – from the available evidence – is so similar to such a scan or photocopy that no copyright protection can be expected to arise. The original itself is in the public domain for the following reason:
This work is in the public domain in the United States because it was published in the United States between 1930 and 1977, inclusive, without a copyright notice. For further explanation, see Commons:Hirtle chart as well as a detailed definition of "publication" for public art.
Note that it may still be copyrighted in jurisdictions that do not apply the rule of the shorter term for US works (depending on the date of the author's death), such as Canada (50 p.m.a.), Mainland China (50 p.m.a., not Hong Kong or Macao), Germany (70 p.m.a.), Mexico (100 p.m.a.), Switzerland (70 p.m.a.), and other countries with individual treaties.
The author died in 1984, so this work is also in the public domain in jurisdictions where the copyright term is the author's life plus 30 years or less. This work may also be in the public domain in countries and areas with longer native copyright terms that apply the rule of the shorter term to foreign works.

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This tag is designed for use where there may be a need to assert that any enhancements (eg brightness, contrast, colour-matching, sharpening) are in themselves insufficiently creative to generate a new copyright. It can be used where it is unknown whether any enhancements have been made, as well as when the enhancements are clear but insufficient. For known raw unenhanced scans you can use an appropriate {{PD-old}} tag instead. For usage, see Commons:When to use the PD-scan tag.

Note: This tag applies to scans and photocopies only. For photographs of public domain originals taken from afar, {{PD-Art}} may be applicable. See Commons:When to use the PD-Art tag.
Any edits made to the scan by the uploader
Creative Commons CC-Zero This file is made available under the Creative Commons CC0 1.0 Universal Public Domain Dedication.
The person who associated a work with this deed has dedicated the work to the public domain by waiving all of their rights to the work worldwide under copyright law, including all related and neighboring rights, to the extent allowed by law. You can copy, modify, distribute and perform the work, even for commercial purposes, all without asking permission.

File history

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Date/TimeThumbnailDimensionsUserComment
current06:27, 29 July 2019Thumbnail for version as of 06:27, 29 July 2019600 × 826 (378 KB)Blz 2049 (talk | contribs){{Information |Description=Truman Capote's photo portrait of Harper Lee from the back cover of the first-edition dust jacket for Lee's novel ''To Kill a Mockingbird''. |Source=Scan of the image from [https://www.vogue.com/article/harper-lee-second-novel-go-set-a-watchman "More than Five Decades After ''To Kill a Mockingbird'', Harper Lee Will Publish a Second Novel"] at ''Vogue'' ([https://assets.vogue.com/photos/5891cf38b4a4bd4660129b6b/master/w_1560,c_lim...

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