Bettman does not usually hold the copyright to images donated to the collection, nor does it have copyright filings nor a copyright notice on most of their work before 1978. Getty does not hold the copyright to most, if any of their photos, a statement backed up by numerous lawsuits and court rulings.
This work is in the
public domain
in the United States because it was
published
in the United States between 1929 and 1977, inclusive,
without a
copyright notice
. For further explanation, see
Commons:Hirtle chart
as well as a
detailed definition
of "publication" for public art. 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.
