Question:
Is it legal to photocopy my pictures from my school year book?
anonymous
2013-04-17 21:32:53 UTC
I wanna frame some pictures from my year book and I was wondering if it was legal to photocopy and print them? Can I go to Walmart and do that?
Three answers:
Steve P
2013-04-18 00:58:20 UTC
I disagree with the other two answers, but I am not a copyright lawyer, but I am 99.999% sure they are not either.



I will give you MY opinion based on years of dealing with this stuff. Just because it is a yearbook and a photo of you, does not automatically make all copyright laws go flying out the window. The photographer still owns the copyright to the photos, (unless he / she was a salaried employee of the school, in which case the school would own the copyright). In either case, the photo ownership is not yours.



Now, that is the techie / legal side of it. If by photos you mean just snapshots taken by other kids in the school, then you will probably be fine with trying to dupe them. If they are the formal type photos taken by a "pro" photographer, then it can be more risky.



Lastly, it could all be a moot point anyway. Walmart, or any other place you may try to get prints made, are very strict about not violating copyright. If there is even a hint that the photos are not something of yours, then they will refuse to print them. They do this to avoid huge fines that could be placed on them for copyright infringement. I would say that if you try to take in what is obviously some type of photocopy of the yearbook photos, that you will not be successful at having prints made.



steve
Eric Lefebvre
2013-04-19 18:18:20 UTC
Do you own the COPYRIGHT (COPY + RIGHT) to those images ... then no, you do not have the RIGHT to COPY those images.



If you want an enlargement of your school yearbook picture, contact the photographer.
Gerardo
2013-04-18 04:33:45 UTC
Yes it's legal


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