English: Promotional photograph of Tony Randall. Back of this photo print contains stamps of dates and proprietors that used this photo for "editorial uses only". Also, it contains pasted attachment of information printed by ABC Public Relations; the secondary detachable paper was already detached.
Date
Information about, including creation of and print attachment on, this photo is unknown, but first stamped in "Sep 22 1976".
Source
Printed from the negative of this photo. Digitally reproduced in and digitally downloaded from eBay item, front, back
Author
Negative of this photo: unknown. Proprietor of this photo print: ABC Television. Other prints of this photo were sent to ABC, CBS, and (possibly) MTM Enterprises to promote the television series The Tony Randall Show.
Post-1963 photos, published by major television studios, such as Warner Bros., Paramount, and Universal, under Copyright Renewal Act of 1992, that promoted television shows contain copyright notices and may still be protected by copyright laws. In this case, existance of promotional photos by MTM Enterprises is unknown. Until proven to exist, copyright statuses of pre-1978 promotional photos released by MTM Enterprises are unknown. See more below.
The photo has no copyright markings on it as can be seen in the links above and photo revisions.
It was created for publicity purposes-distribution to the media. The image was meant to bring attention and publicity for the personalities pictured, the program he/she was part of and the network it was on, the same as the publicity photos for actors and actresses in the film industry were intended to do.
Film production expert Eve Light Honthaner in The Complete Film Production Handbook, (Focal Press, 2001 p. 211.):
"Publicity photos (star headshots) have traditionally not been copyrighted. Since they are disseminated to the public, they are generally considered public domain, and therefore clearance by the studio that produced them is not necessary."
"There is a vast body of photographs, including but not limited to publicity stills, that have no notice as to who may have created them." (The Professional Photographer's Legal Handbook By Nancy E. Wolff, Allworth Communications, 2007, p. 55.)
"Publicity Photos (star headshots) older publicity stills have usually not been copyrighted and since they have been disseminated to the public, they are generally considered public domain and therefore there is no necessity to clear them with the studio that produced them (if you can even determine who did)."
Under the Copyright Act of 1909, works published in many copies without copyright notice are ineligible for copyright protections, and Copyright Act of 1976 may not apply under its Appendixes, with respect, to such works first published under older laws. However, accidental errors and/or accidental omissions of copyright notice in small amount of copies of published works may have been corrected in many other copies at the time of first publication. In this case, "accidental omission" or "accidental error" does not apply.
Note that it may still be copyrighted in jurisdictions that do not apply the rule of the shorter term for US works (depending on the date of the author's death), such as Canada (50 p.m.a.), Mainland China (50 p.m.a., not Hong Kong or Macao), Germany (70 p.m.a.), Mexico (100 p.m.a.), Switzerland (70 p.m.a.), and other countries with individual treaties.
This image has been assessed under the valued image criteria and is considered the most valued image on Commons within the scope: Tony Randall. You can see its nomination here.
Captions
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slightly trimmed top and right margins for better portrait composition and to remove white border; converted to greyscale; removed numerous specks; adjusted levels
{{Information |Description ={{en|1=Promotional photograph of Tony Randall. Back of this photo contains stamps of dates and proprietors that used this photo for "editorial uses only". Also, it contains pasted attachment of informa
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