International Newsreel

Rights and Restrictions Information

Prints and Photographs Division, Library of Congress, Washington, D.C., 20540-4730

Summary: International Newsreel was subsumed by United Press International, which has been bought by CORBIS. The use of photographs taken by International Newsreel may be restricted.

Access: Permitted; subject to P&P policy on serving originals.

Reproduction (photocopying, hand-held camera copying, photoduplication and other forms of copying allowed by "fair use"): Permitted, subject to P&P policy on copying.

Publication and other forms of distribution: May be restricted. The UPI archives has been bought by CORBIS, which controls the copying of UPI images physically housed in its archives in New York City. CORBIS can be contacted at:

CORBIS does not control the copying of International Newsreel images housed in the Library of Congress. However, any copyright held by International Newsreel that is still current would now be owned by CORBIS. In an attempt to determine if International Newsreel registered any copyrights and if those copyrights were renewed, Specialists in the Prints and Photographs Division of the Library of Congress searched the Copyright Office files. It was found that only a few images were registered for copyright and those copyrights were not renewed. However, the Library’s legal office has advised the Division that photographs published with proper copyright notices between 1923-1963 may be protected if properly renewed, while works published after 1963 and unpublished photographs in the collection may be protected even if they were not registered with the Copyright Office. Additionally, researchers should be advised that determining the copyright status of photographs can be problematic because of the lack of pertinent information, and researchers often have to make calculated risk decisions concerning the appropriate use of an image when its copyright status is unknown or ambiguous. Privacy and publicity rights may also apply.

Credit Line: Library of Congress, Prints & Photographs Division, [reproduction number, e.g., LC-USZ62-123456]

For more information, please read: Copyright and Other Restrictions: ... Sources for Information

Prepared by: Prints and Photographs Division staff. Last revised: January 13, 2003.