Chess Art and Copyright

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billwall

Nov 14, 2008

I recently received an email about how can someone use a piece of existing chess art for the frontpiece of his book and if it is under copyright law. I really don't know. The German artist died in 1965. Can someone use a chess art drawing and use it on the frontpiece of his book? Does anyone know the copywright laws or does this fall under an orphan copyright?

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Dear Mr. Wall,

On your chess art site, you mention Otto Möller's 1922 woodcut, "Joueurs d'Echec".

The woodcut can be viewed by scrolling down through the collection at www.jmrw.com/Chess/Tableau_echecs/index.htm#a19 and then clicking on the thumbprint.

Would you have any idea how I could go about discovering the location and copyright holder of the original? I am having great difficulty tracking it down on the internet. Any leads you can offer would be greatly appreciated. I ask because I would like to use it as the frontpiece of a book of mine soon to be published.

May I add that your main chess website is an extraordinary resource.

Yours sincerely,

Robert Leonard

Montreal, Canada

billwall

Nov 14, 2008

Thanks for all the postings so far. I passed them on to the original source of the question.