My Dad passed away yesterday. He was 80, and had lived a full life. Unfortunately, he lit his first cigarette when he was 8 years old and never stopped. He was diagnosed with stage 4 cancer in late December.
It doesn't take long.
My brother and I have been going through his things, and we've come across a lot of old photos. Some of them are of his when he was 15 years old, posing with the same buddy with whom he'd meet twice a week for a couple of beers at the local gin mill. They've been friends over 70 years.
My question to the mods: Would it be permissible to post some of those photos here? I certainly didn't take them and, unfortunately, there's no way to know who did; at least the ones of Dad. They're some cool photos. Many would require some repair work in Photoshop, so I'm wondering if it would be permissible to post them from that perspective.
Oh, and who the Hell has $960.00 in one dollar bills in a sock drawer? There's not a stripper pole within 20 miles of here!
Steve, very sorry to hear about your dad. My condolences to you and your family. As to the legal question on photo copyrights, it depends on when the photograph was taken. If the pictures were never published (and from the sounds of it I'm guessing such is the case) then they will not fall under the public domain. That would only apply to pictures published prior to 1923. If the photos were never published then the copyright belongs to the original photographer as long as he or she is alive, or if the photographer has passed away the copyright is passed as part of the photographers estate to his/her heirs and is protected for 70 years after the photographers passing, only after that point would they be considered public domain.
While I seriously doubt anyone would come after you for using the photos sadly if I'm interpreting the fair use law correctly they wouldn't even technically fall under that. A very bizarre situation to be sure. Granted I'm no legal expert and the final decision is entirely up to the mods/admins of TPF. I can't imagine that most of the copyright holders of these images are even aware they have the copyrights, and I seriously doubt any of them would object at all to having you post the photos even if they were aware. Again, sorry to hear about your dad and I'll keep my fingers crossed for you on TPF's final ruling.