Box Art Copyright?

[boatofcar]

How long does the copyright on box art last before it falls into public domain?

[badinsults]

Probably 70 years, like anything else in media.

[demen999]

Now THIS I would love to know.

[noname11]

70 years after the life of the author if the author is a real person , and thats if the work was "fixed" within the 1976 copyright act , that is , after jan 1st 1978 .....


pretty much its like that chirstmas carolling joke in the simpsons , nothing thats in the public domain is worth publishing ... that and the way the supreme court interprets fair use is pretty anti consumer / collector / fan

[Dave Farquhar]

If you really want to research it, you may get lucky. Generally speaking, nothing newer than 1924 is in the public domain. BUT copyrights weren't automatically granted until the early 1990s (this means anything I write today is automatically copyrighted, whether I claim it or not, but the stuff I wrote in 1982 when I was in the second grade would be public domain, if anyone wanted it). SO... If the box art wasn't registered separately, it may have fallen through the cracks and not be copyrighted. The same is likely for the instruction manuals. I know a few movie trailers from 1980s movies weren't separately registered, so those have fallen into the public domain, even though the movies themselves are still copyrighted.

Unfortunately, the cost of researching whether any particular game's box art is under copyright will probably be prohibitive, because you'll need a copyright/intellectual property lawyer to be really safe.

Write to your representative and your senators about this. Honestly. Copyright law is extremely onerous and full of loopholes that benefit large corporations; most of the loopholes that benefit you and me are too expensive for us to be able to use them safely. (The actual creator of the work usually gets the screws too; when you pay $25 for a book at a bookstore, the author is lucky to get $4 of it, and may actually only get 25-50 cents.)

[kevincure]

Putting scans of box art on a website, for instance, is a clear-as-day example of fair use, though. If that's what you're after, you needn't worry about the copyright.

[Phosphor Dot Fossils]

I don't think that the life of the author + XX years applies in the case of something like this, since it would technically be considered a Work For Hire, which is a whole different waxy spheroid.

(See previous message about finding an attorney with intellectual property experience.)