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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;benveniste, post: 2291338, member: 25547&quot;]1.&nbsp; If you want legal advice, consult an attorney.&nbsp; Do not assume that any random internet poster knows the law or how it applies to specific situations.</p><p>2.&nbsp; You can safely assume that I am &quot;any random internet poster.&quot;</p><p>3.&nbsp; The world is a very big place.&nbsp; What follows only is only based on my interpretation of U.S. law.</p><p><br /></p><p>Copyright exits <b>in original works of authorship</b> fixed in any tangible medium of expression.&nbsp; (17 U.S.C. 102(a)).&nbsp; This implies a &quot;minimal quantum of personal creativity.&quot;&nbsp; While the threshold is quite low, a straightforward, head-on shot of a coin such as those that <i>I</i> typically post here might well not meet that threshold.&nbsp; If not, it&#039;s not a copyrightable work.</p><p><br /></p><p>If you assume it passes that threshold, as soon as the image is &quot;fixed&quot; in a tangible medium, a copyright typically exists in that work.&nbsp; You may own it, or in case of a work for hire whoever hired you may own it.&nbsp; The only exception I can think of offhand is a work for hire for the U.S. Federal Government.&nbsp; However, having a copyright is one thing.&nbsp; Being able to do something with it is quite another.</p><p><br /></p><p>Let&#039;s start with SuperDave&#039;s question.&nbsp; Yes, you can copyright an image of something somebody else has copyrighted.&nbsp; However, your work will often be a derivative work.&nbsp; Copyright protection in a derivative work covers only the additions, changes, or other new material appearing for the first time in the work.&nbsp; But worse, it&#039;s almost always an infringement of &quot;somebody else&#039;s&quot; copyright.&nbsp; As usual, there are exceptions.&nbsp; One major one is on architectural works; in the United States a photograph of a building does not infringe on the copyright of the building.&nbsp; U.S. Coins and Medals, as has been noted here already, are not copyrighted, so you don&#039;t have to worry about your coin photographs being an infringement.&nbsp; However, if you are thinking of selling photos of, say, Zombucks tokens, please think again after paying a lawyer.</p><p><br /></p><p>Instead, let&#039;s say that some steals your copyrighted photograph of a U.S. Coin and starts using it on a website, sells direct copies, or creates their own derivative work and you want to do something about it.&nbsp; In order to &quot;get in the courtroom door&quot; you <b>must</b> register your copyright with the United States Copyright Office.&nbsp; If the infringement occurs after registration, you can sue for actual damages or statutory damages, plus attorney&#039;s fees.&nbsp; If the infringement occurs before registration, unless the work was a) published, and b) registered no later than 3 months after publication and no later than 1 month after the infringement was discovered, you can only sue for actual damages.&nbsp; For a photograph of a coin, it will likely be extremely difficult to prove anything more than nominal actual damages under copyright.&nbsp; You may win your case, but lose big time in your wallet.</p><p><br /></p><p>As has been noted previously, it is possible to register multiple photos in a collection.&nbsp; But to quote the copyright office, &quot;If the works included in a collective work were not preexisting—not previously published, registered, or in the public domain or owned by a third party—the registration may extend to those works in which the author of the collective work owns or has obtained all rights.&quot;&nbsp; Note the word <u>may</u>; again, please contact and pay a lawyer for specifics.&nbsp; But if you make the photo available to the public (say, on this site) before registering a copyright on the collection, it likely won&#039;t be covered under the registration of the collection.</p><p><br /></p><p>For purposes of U.S. copyright law, copyright notices and watermarks are important mainly for proving ownership and determining if the copyright infringement is willful. The damages for willful copyright infringement can be much higher than for other infringement.</p><p><br /></p><p>So in a blunt summary:</p><p>-- Photographs of coins are copyrightable if they have pass the &quot;threshold of originality&quot; test.</p><p>-- Photographs of privately minted tokens and possibly even foreign coins may infringe of copyrights on those objects.</p><p>-- In order to be worth suing under copyright law, the work must be registered either before or shortly after publication.</p><p><br /></p><p>This already too long post does not cover defenses, such as Fair Use or immunity under the DCMA.&nbsp; Nor do I plan to do a follow up post on those subjects; again, contact an expert for any specifics.[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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