ملف:Edmund Wilson.jpg

English: Under U.S. copyright law prior to 1964, publicity photographs, advertisements, and other promotional materials would need to include their own valid copyright notice, separate from any copyright notice for the periodical as a whole, in order to establish copyright protection. According to archivists at both the U.S. Library of Congress and the New York Public Library, Dorothy Larrimore of Doubleday & Company freely distributed this publicity photograph without a copyright notice in 1946 to newspapers and all other publications. This publicity photograph was extensively used to promote Edmund Wilson's 1946 book, Memoirs of Hecate County. See the corresponding entry in the U.S. Library of Congress catalogue clearly identifying the image's release and distribution as a publicity photograph:

"Publicity photograph from: Dorothy Larrimore of Doubleday and Company, Inc., announcing publication of "Memiors [ك‍] of Hecate County."

Furthermore, Wikimedia Commons user Flask contacted and conversed with the Prints & Photographs Division at the U.S. Library of Congress in Washington, D.C. A librarian confirmed the work is identified as a publicity photograph released for promotional purposes without a copyright notice:

"...The accompanying record states the item was sent by Dorothy Larrimore of Doubleday and Company, Inc., announcing publication of "Memiors [ك‍] of Hecate County".... The item is described as a publicity photograph.... The item in the library's possession does not bear a copyright notice...."

In sum: 1.) since this publicity photograph was released for promotional purposes without a copyright notice prior to 1977, and 2.) since copyright law deems the act of publication to include the distribution of a discernible copy (i.e., the act of distribution itself is deemed publication regardless of whether or not the photograph appears in a book or magazine), and 3.) since an exhaustive inspection by the U.S. Library of Congress in 1996 found no evidence indicating a valid copyright for this photo, this image resides in the public domain. Finally, if any future entity attempts to exert a copyright claim, the fact that Wilson and his authorized publicist distributed this work as a publicity photograph with no use restrictions would negate such retroactive claims. You cannot retroactively claim copyright on an image after its copyright holder authorized its distribution without any conditions.