Wednesday, December 10, 2008

Who owns the right's to the image of Che Guevara?


I love the image of Che Guevara. Last night I wondered who owned the famous image? I'm no historian and only ever have a vague idea on things. I figured someone must own it.

We 10 minutes of digging on Wikipedia and there it all is. The guy who took the picture Alberto Korda, never registered it under copyright law so it falls under common use. Basically that means that if you want to use that image you can, no questions, no charges.

Does that support or go against Che's ideas? Surely freedom of speech and thought is what he was about. But this free usage means that it can be used for commercial means as well totally what he was against.

The V&A Museum declared it "the most reproduced image in the history of photography" it's been used for good and bad.

If only the copyright had been asserted maybe the use of Che's image could have helped the people he longed to free from poverty and oppression. But then again if there had been restrictions them maybe the image and ultimately his legacy wouldn't live on?

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