dazkaz15
Posts: 307
Joined: 12/14/2012
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If you can be bothered to read all this you will see what I mean. It's a complete mess.
Trying to track down if these kind of images have copyright or not is a non starter.
I would say just use what you want, and if someone complains take it out and replace it with something else.
German World War II images
In short: All deemed copyrighted by their authors. In the U.S. and the UK, special exceptions for "seized enemy property" may apply.
The issue of German photographs from World War II has created some confusion. Are they still copyrighted? What about governmental images (such as propaganda)? What about images seized by Nazi Germany?
The copyright situation in Germany concerning such images is in itself confusing. Originally, these images were subject to the 1907 Kunsturhebergesetz (KUG), which provided for a copyright term for photographs of 10 years from publication, or 25 years p.m.a. for unpublished works. In 1940, the KUG was modified to provide a copyright term of 25 years from publication, also applicable to all works that were either still unpublished or still copyright protected (§26). In 1965, the first version of the German Urheberechtsgesetz (UrhG) became effective, again with a copyright term for photographs of 25 years from publication, or 25 years from creation, if the image had not been published in that time (§68). As a result, copyright on photographs from the World War II expired at the end of 1970.[49]
However, with the 1993 EU Directive on harmonising the term of copyright protection, which became effective in Germany on July 1, 1995 and is implemented in German law in §137f, these works suddenly became copyright protected again, until 70 years p.m.a! This was caused by Spain's longer copyright term of 80 years p.m.a. (see section on copyright restoration) with [50] This suddenly superseded Germany's old "25 years"-rule that had governed World War II images. As a result, an image published in 1943 that had been in the public domain in Germany since 1968 became copyrighted again in 1995 with the EU term of 70y p.m.a.[51]
As a result, such images were copyright protected on January 1, 1996[52] (which is the critical date as far as U.S. copyright law is concerned), and therefore, they are copyrighted even in the U.S.
The situation of German World War II photographs found in U.S. governmental archives is controversial. They might fall (in the US only) under 17 U.S.C. 104A(a)(2), which exempts from the URAA copyright restorations works on which the copyright was seized and administered by the U.S. Office of the Alien Property Custodian and on which a restored copyright would be held by a foreign government.[53] It is unclear to what works exactly this provisio would apply,[53] as it can be argued that copyright of hardly any of the WWII works at all were owned by the German government and the Nazi party, but by private people and organizations. Most of these seized copyrights were returned to their foreign owners in 1962 by public law Pub. L. No. 87–846,[53][54] but on motion pictures, the U.S. retained the right "to reproduce, for its own use, or exhibit any divested copyrighted motion picture films."[53] There is also the Price vs. United States (69 F.3d 46) ruling that at least places serious constraints on the practical enforceability of copyrights on such works in the U.S.[55] The United States Holocaust Memorial Museum even tags some such images as "© USHMM". It is also unclear what the U.S. position on "official" images of the Nazi regime is. It should be noted that even the NARA acknowledges the presence of copyrights from the war era on some of its holdings remaining with the institutions and individuals who own the artwork, as oppose to their Nazi plunderers.
Another example are German newsreels, a kind of weekly news shown in movie theatres before the advent of television. Most such Wochenschau films are still copyrighted; the rights are held by Transit Film GmbH in Germany. In the U.S. the copyright on these films from 1914 until the 1940s had expired due to non-compliance with U.S. formalities; the copyright was then restored in 1996 by the URAA on those published after 1922. The Transit Film company then even filed so-called "notices of intent to enforce" (NIEs) with the U.S. Copyright Office and can now even enforce its copyrights against parties who used their films (rightfully!) before the URAA became effective. The same is also true for most UFA films; the rights holder in this case is the Friedrich Wilhelm Murnau Foundation [7]. The song Lili Marleen is another such case; the rights holder is Schott Music International [8].
In the United Kingdom, confiscated German works brought into the country between September 3, 1939 and July 9, 1951 had all German interests, both physical ownership and intellectual property rights such as copyrights or patents, extinguished by the Enemy Property Act of 1953. This expropriation affected only the status of such works within the UK; the international rights on German works were left untouched. [56] This act was repealed in 1976, but the copyrights on such seized works were not restored in the UK.[57][58]
In general, wartime German images cannot be tagged as being in the public domain.
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Printable Version
COTA - 
) so I can help in the search for some images of it? 
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