Photos in Question

[NW Mailing List]

Jim and John

Totally agree with you that he likely has no rights to be selling copies of the Otto Perry work. 

However, being listed as in Australia, means that it would become international law to enforce it makes it very difficult. I am betting, with the prices, that they are printed in the US and shipped from the US.

Many years ago, I got a letter from a man in Australia, who had paid a considerable amount to Mark Faville, who possessed the N&W steam drawings at the time for prints. The man wanted to build a live steam Class A. He made the mistake of paying Faville for the total in advance, and Faville decided that when he got about 100 drawings printed (of the 300 or so) he was done, told the guy that was all he was getting. Unfortunately, he had paid the price for the full batch, but bringing legal action was going to cost far more than it was worth, other than maybe the satisfaction of winning. Faville did have a history of doing this type of thing, as well.

I told the man I wish I had something to help him, but did not know of anything that I could do. I’m not a lawyer, nor do I play one on TV, but this would entail filing charges in a local court, and at that time, difficulty in getting a deposition from Australia would be huge.

I’d imagine the Denver Public Library would have much the same thing, other than getting an attorney to write a cease and desist letter and sending it to both ebay and the seller.

By the way, I think this same seller had also been selling copies of some of the photos we have been selling. 

In answer to Mike Rector’s comment about this being an estate sale, no way. Take a look at how many listings this seller has, at the moment, 584,938 items, this is an industry, not some small estate, someone who knows to get the stuff, and sell it outside the copyright laws. Ebay does not seem to care unless you are a huge corporation whose rights have been violated.

Best
Ken

> On Oct 24, 2023, at 10:54 PM, NW Mailing List <nw-mailing-list at nwhs.org> wrote:
> 
> Jim,
> 
> All of these images were taken by Otto Perry. And they reside in the archives of the Western History Department of the Denver Public Library. Go to the link below to access all the details regarding these images and many more. Perry was a fine, widely traveled photographer, and we owe him a great deal of gratitude for his many rare N&W and VGN images.
> 
> BTW, I highly doubt the Bay'er from 'Down Under' has permission to be selling any of his photos. Just my 2c.
> 
> https://digital.denverlibrary.org/digital/collection/p15330coll22/search/searchterm/N%26W/page/1
> 
> John Garner,  Newport VA
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