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Lawsuit: Harvard ‘shamelessly’ profits from photos of slaves
Associated Press ^ | March 20, 2019 | Colin Binkley

Posted on 03/20/2019 9:29:07 AM PDT by Olog-hai

Harvard University has “shamelessly” turned a profit from photos of two 19th-century slaves while ignoring requests to turn the photos over to the slaves’ descendants, according to a lawsuit filed Wednesday.

Tamara Lanier, of Norwich, Connecticut, is suing the Ivy League school for “wrongful seizure, possession and expropriation” of images she says depict two of her ancestors. Her suit, filed in Massachusetts state court, demands that Harvard immediately turn over the photos, acknowledge her ancestry and pay an unspecified sum in damages.

Harvard spokesman Jonathan Swain said the university “has not yet been served, and with that is in no position to comment on this complaint.”

At the center of the case is a series of 1850 daguerreotypes, an early type of photo, taken of two South Carolina slaves identified as Renty and his daughter, Delia. Both were posed shirtless and photographed from several angles. The images are believed to be the earliest known photos of American slaves. …

(Excerpt) Read more at apnews.com ...


TOPICS: Education; History; Local News; Society
KEYWORDS: education; harvard; liberalagenda; massachusetts; slavery
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To: Olog-hai

LOL!


21 posted on 03/20/2019 10:23:39 AM PDT by <1/1,000,000th%
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To: Olog-hai

It needs to be understood that the physical photographs are worth considerable money to a collector. The value of each one is certainly in 5 figures, possibly 6.

The alleged descendants must surely be aware of that factor.


22 posted on 03/20/2019 10:23:50 AM PDT by Fresh Wind (Trump: "America will never be a socialist country!")
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To: Tired of Taxes
"But I do sympathize with her: I wouldn’t be happy if Harvard were profiting from a photo of one of my ancestors, either."

Whoever has the stash of all the old Ellis Island immigrant photos probably have photos of many of our ancestors. I have no claim to those.

23 posted on 03/20/2019 10:26:59 AM PDT by blam
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To: PghBaldy

Interesting read

https://blog.kenkaminesky.com/photography-copyright-and-the-law/

A1976 law said the copyright is created at the moment of capture


24 posted on 03/20/2019 10:27:23 AM PDT by Nifster (I see puppy dogs in the clouds)
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To: Olog-hai

Guess we should should burn every artifact of our past so no one ever gets offended again.


25 posted on 03/20/2019 10:27:34 AM PDT by KosmicKitty (Opportunities multiply as they are seized.)
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To: Tired of Taxes

Agreed

Time will tell


26 posted on 03/20/2019 10:27:59 AM PDT by Nifster (I see puppy dogs in the clouds)
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To: Olog-hai
Looks like whip marks across the abdomen


27 posted on 03/20/2019 10:33:20 AM PDT by BeauBo
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To: DesertRhino
Imagine if your business openly said “we want to hire fewer orientals”.

I saw your post above and thought about this one day:

True story. In the mid-90's, I was sitting in a college class, and the professor was interrupted by a knock on the door. Someone from an Asian students union entered, holding flyers. Holding up the flyers, he announced that a company was hiring Asian students. Were there any Asian students there interested in a job? It just so happened that no one in that class was of Asian descent. In fact, most of the students in that class were of European descent (white), and a few of them yelled out, "That's racist!"

28 posted on 03/20/2019 10:38:07 AM PDT by Tired of Taxes (Keep fighting, Nick!)
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To: Nifster

When the photos were taken, the subjects were the property of their owners and not persons. Like photographing farm equipment or livestock.


29 posted on 03/20/2019 10:38:31 AM PDT by VietVet876
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To: Nifster

https://thelawtog.com/a-quick-photographers-guide-to-photography-copyright-law/

According to the U.S. Copyright Office, the owner of the “work” is generally the photographer or, in certain situations, the employer of the photographer. Even if a person hires a photographer to take pictures of a wedding, for example, the photographer will own the copyright in the photographs unless the copyright in the photographs is transferred, in writing and signed by the copyright owner, to another person. The subject of the photograph generally has nothing to do with the ownership of the copyright in the photograph. If the photographer is no longer living, the rights in the photograph are determined by the photographer’s will or passed as personal property by the applicable laws of intestate succession.


30 posted on 03/20/2019 10:49:15 AM PDT by MeganC (There is nothing feminine about feminism.)
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To: ClearCase_guy
Does she own the current copyright to these 1850 photographs? No? Then she should shut up.

Exactly.

This is a direct attack on intellectual property rights, and generally, on all property rights.

31 posted on 03/20/2019 11:00:21 AM PDT by marktwain (President Trump and his supporters are the Resistance. His opponents are the Reactionaries.)
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To: Olog-hai

Well considering a lot of the seed capital to really get Harvard going - along with the rest of the Ivy League - came from the New England dominated slave trade industry, this seems entirely in keeping for Harvard. They’ve never been the least bit averse to profiting from slavery.


32 posted on 03/20/2019 11:02:16 AM PDT by FLT-bird
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To: Olog-hai

bookmark


33 posted on 03/20/2019 11:12:32 AM PDT by GOP Poet
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To: FLT-bird

How dare you! Are you implying that anyone in the north was anything besides pure and innocent in the slavery era? You must report to reeducation camp to be able to understand that it was 100% from the south, and that everyone north of the future Mason-Dixon line was always horrified and refused to profit from slavery. And they treated black as brothers and friends... oh wait./s


34 posted on 03/20/2019 11:23:52 AM PDT by DesertRhino (Dog is man's best friend, and moslems hate dogs. Add that up. ....)
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To: MeganC

See my post at 24


35 posted on 03/20/2019 12:04:49 PM PDT by Nifster (I see puppy dogs in the clouds)
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To: DesertRhino

Mr. Rhino, your ideas are sadly out of date. In today’s world, every white person, born and yet to be born is guilty for the crimes of the slavery era. Even if your ancestors immigrated to this country after slavery ended—you are guilty and should be willing and happy to pay reparations to those who share skin color with the slaves—even those like the last President whose father and his father’s father were still in Africa when slavery ended.

On a side note, I happen to have a tintype of a black man. Is it no longer mine?


36 posted on 03/20/2019 12:06:34 PM PDT by hanamizu
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To: Nifster

And like I said the subject of the photograph has no claims on the photograph. It does not belong to them.


37 posted on 03/20/2019 12:45:40 PM PDT by MeganC (There is nothing feminine about feminism.)
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To: MeganC

Did you go and read at the link. Your blanket statement is not accurate


38 posted on 03/20/2019 12:52:44 PM PDT by Nifster (I see puppy dogs in the clouds)
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To: Nifster

My blanket statement is indeed accurate. The photographer who took the photographs in question did so with the permission of the owner of the slaves.

While slavery is now outlawed it was legal at the time and therefore the consent of the slave owner was required for the photographs.

The Constitution’s clause prohibiting ex-post facto laws prevents the photographer’s then-legal actions from being deemed illegal some 200 years after the fact.

Therefore the subjects (and their possible descendants) of the photographs have no valid claim on the photographs.


39 posted on 03/20/2019 1:09:34 PM PDT by MeganC (There is nothing feminine about feminism.)
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To: Jagermonster

for works created after January 1, 1978,


40 posted on 03/20/2019 5:43:01 PM PDT by lepton ("It is useless to attempt to reason a man out of a thing he was never reasoned into"--Jonathan Swift)
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