Incamake

Uburenganzira

The press photo of "eBay (v1)" does not have a copyright notice.

Does "eBay (v2)" have a valid copyright notice?

Is the year of publication required?

According to The Compendium of U.S. Copyright Office Practices: Chapter 2200 § 2204.1 at p. 4:

In the case of a pictorial, graphic, or sculptural work, the year of publication may be omitted if the work is reproduced on greeting cards, postcards, stationery, jewelry, dolls, toys, or any useful article.

The U.S. Copyright Office defines useful article as follows:

A “useful article” is an object having an intrinsic utilitar¡an function that is not merely to portray the appearance of the article or to convey information. Examples are clothing, furniture, machinery, dinnerware, and lighting fixtures. An article that is normally part of a useful article may itself be a useful article, for example, an ornamental wheel cover on a vehicle.

The photo in "eBay (v2)" is not reproduced on any such articles. Thus the answer is yes.

What is the conclusion?

According to The Compendium of U.S. Copyright Office Practices: Chapter 2200 § 2205.1(E) at p. 9:

In those cases where a year is required and no year of publication can be reasonably identified as part of the notice, the Office will consider the work to be published without notice.

No year appears on the front or back side of the photo. A year is required. Thus the photo was published without a copyright notice.

Was the photo registered with the U.S. Copyright Office within 5 years?

A search for "Fred Rogers" and "Walt Seng" (the photographer) in the Copyright Record for 1978 to present yields no relevant results. Thus the answer is no.

This work is in the public domain because it was published in the United States between 1978 and March 1, 1989 without a copyright notice, and its copyright was not subsequently registered with the U.S. Copyright Office within 5 years. Unless its author has been dead for several years, it is copyrighted in the countries or areas that do not apply the rule of the shorter term for US works, such as Canada (50 pma), Mainland China (50 pma, not Hong Kong or Macau), Germany (70 pma), Mexico (100 pma), Switzerland (70 pma), and other countries with individual treaties. See this page for further explanation. Deutsch ∙ English ∙ español ∙ français ∙ italiano ∙ 日本語 ∙ 한국어 ∙ македонски ∙ português ∙ português do Brasil ∙ русский ∙ sicilianu ∙ slovenščina ∙ 中文 ∙ 中文（简体） ∙ 中文（繁體） ∙ 中文（臺灣） ∙ +/−