Copyright, Diggers and archaeology

[mpoole]

mplool so you think that I should first learn something about copyright before I sign?

Yes, you haven't shown me anything which indicates you have a genuine grasp of the topic. You are pretty good at repeating things you've read but you need comprehension too, because that's the part that counts. The monkeys and typewriters can (potentially) create anything but they don't understand what's on the sheet in front of them, it could be Shakespeare or it could be Barbara Cartland, only paying attention to what's on the page gives real meaning to what's being discussed. You still insist on using the term copyright as if it's a physical and palpable construct, rather than a concept.

Any photograph is a copyrighted piece of work, copyright exists at the moment of creation, it is not a legal requirement to place copyright notices on photographs to have a copyright BUT and it's the one you keep ignoring, the copyright isn't always that of the creator of the item because terms of employment can affect that. Photographs taken during a dig by a person/digger/photographer who is working for a company doing the archaeological work are most often the property of the company, and therefore the company will be the copyright holder. A digger won't have any copyright in items they are producing for an employer, if the terms of their employment state that all 'work product' is property of the company. Please don't use blanket statements when they don't apply.

I am also amused at your insistence that copyright belongs to the landowner. What copyrighted materials do they possess? Is their contract with the company doing the work one that states that all copyrighted materials produced by the company belong to the landowner? Contracts are a very important part of the issue of copyright ownership and any company entering into work for a landowner will have contracts in place that cover not only what rights belong to the landowner, but also to the company doing the work.

You DID ask.

I would point out that my name isn't mplool, which is a tiny bit of detail but it is something indicative of how closely the information in front of you is processed.