Does copyright law still apply now Olan Mills has gone bust?

[Sausagegirl]

We have a number of photos from Olan Mills which have the copyright stamp tucked away in a corner. Now the firm has gone bust, does the copyright still apply or can I now go mental getting cheap reprints?

[Buenchico]

When a firm goes into liquidation, all of its property passes to the receiver. This will include 'intellectual property' (i.e. patents and copyright).

So, theoretically, the copyright still exists and is under the control of the receiver.

In practice, as long as you don't got hold of lots of Olan Mills photos and start to market copies of them commercially, the receiver will neither know nor care that you're making a few copies of the photos.

However, this assumes that the receiver can't sell the business rights to a new company. If so, that company would hold the copyright and would probably seek to enforce it.

Chris