Disputatio:Raphael Merry del Val

How do you know the file is not free? The image must be taken before august 1914 . I put it on the it.wiki a year ago and nobody said it was under license. Thank you for answering me, if it is the case I will delete it also on it.wiki--Massimo Macconi 16:52, 26 Maii 2007 (UTC)

Well, according to the general rule in most countries, copyright expires 70 years after the death of the author (post mortem auctoris). If we know who the author was and when he/she died, we can calculate exactly at which point in time the copyright expires.

Let us suppose that the photo was taken, for example, in 1910 by a man aged 30, who later died in 1955 at the age of 75, then the copyright will expire in 2025.

When we do not know the author exactly, some people say it is acceptable to calculate "date of publication plus 100 years", assuming the author still lived for 30 years after creating his work. But in our case, even this "rule of thumb" says no (1914 + 100 = 2014).

Italy has a special rule on copyright, see it:Immagine:File0021.jpg. But this is not valid in other countries.

Do you happen to know who the photographer was and when he died? Then we would know for sure whether this photo is in the public domain or not.

Of course it is not very probable that Wikimedia will get sued because of THIS photo. But in my view, it is better to be on the safe side … Greetings, --UV 17:27, 26 Maii 2007 (UTC)

I agree with you it's better to delete it

I don't know who was the auctor. I took the image from the book "I grandi nomi del XX secolo, I Papi, De Agostini, Novara 1974, pag. 40." and under "Iconografia" there wasn't any useful information. Though I believe that in this case the auctor shoud have been died from more of 70 years (somebody who can take a official photo of a Pope was sure at his time a known photographer), I agree with you that's better to delete it. Thank you for your answer and your compliments. Ciao--Massimo Macconi 17:54, 26 Maii 2007 (UTC)