[SIGCIS-Members] guide regarding image reproductions & rights, etc?

[Bernard Dionysius Geoghegan]

Dear SIGCIS members,

	Can anyone suggest a good guide, preferably online, for rules regarding copyright issues relating to the reproduction (in the USA) of visual materials? I'm trying to identify who has rights regarding some materials from the MIT Archives, including a small sketch in a letter from one intellectual to another (the author of the sketch, now deceased, was not the one who donated the papers to the archives), and an image from a 1940s Bell Labs flyer freely distributed at the World's Fair which, likewise, ended up in someone's personal papers and then in the archives (hence the images did not originally belong to the person who donated the papers). My plan is to request permissions all around (archives, families, corporation, etc), but I would appreciate if someone could point me towards a guide (preferably on the web) that would help me identify who gets priority for rights, what happens when the rightful owner of rights can't be found or won't respond, etc. 

	Thank you for your feedback. 

Best,

Bernard Dionysius Geoghegan
bernard at u.northwestern.edu

Graduate Fellow, Mediale Historiographien, Bauhaus-Universität Weimar
Doctoral Candidate, Screen Cultures, Northwestern University
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