I have some old wedding photos of my Grandparents and Great Grandparents which I plan to display at my wedding. One of the photos is a little small, and the other 2 are wrinkled on the edges, so I scanned them, put them on a drive, and took them into Wal-Mart to be enlarged and reprinted.
After they were printed, I went up to the photo counter to pay for them, and the lady tells me she cannot sell them to me due to copy right laws because they look like professional photos. I told her one was from the late 1800's, another from the early 1900's, and one from the 1940's, so the photographes were no longer alive to hold a copy right. She told me she still could not give them to me unless I had a release form, and that I may be able to find one online that the photographer left after they died allowing people to duplicate their work. There is no info on the back of the photos even saying who the photographer was. She said the law used to be copy rights only lasted 75 years, but now it is indefinitely, and that she could go to jail for 10 years and be fined $10,000 personally for giving them to me.
Does anyone know anything about these laws, or how I can get these pictures reprinted?
The kicker in all of this is that we also made copies of our engagement photos at the same time, and she handed those right over to us, even though they are obviously professional photos as well. Maybe if I just try a different Wal-mart..
