[rollei_list] Re: rollei_list] Copyright, intellectual property and invention of photography

  • From: "Marvin" <marvin0@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
  • To: <rollei_list@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
  • Date: Thu, 3 Dec 2009 17:26:11 +0800

That's the point Emmanuel, though it was the first recorded image it was not
the first photograph, since a photograph requires the possibility of
duplication-a negative,(I can hear people say now-but there's digital-der),
that accolade goes to William Henry Fox Talbot, a photograph of his home,
Lacock Abbey. 
The process was one in which a negative was produced, the negative and the
plate are stored in the UK I can't quite recall where I think the National
Film and Television museum in Bradford. The year of his invention was 1836.
Further, if the American's bought the Nicéphore Niépce plate on the strength
of it being the first photograph, then I'd say the French got a very, very
good deal.
Thanks,
Marvin.

-----Original Message-----
From: rollei_list-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
[mailto:rollei_list-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of Emmanuel Bigler
Sent: 03 December 2009 16:13
To: rollei_list@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: [rollei_list] rollei_list] Copyright, intellectual property and
invention of photography

 From Marvin:
>  Good point Doug, since the negative was first used in England I hold 
> that it was an English invention, as to who owns the negative I?m unsure 
> though I think in France it belonged to the owner of that which was 
> photographed. Marvin.

Hello all !

About the invention of photography and intellectual property.

The first permanent recording of a photographic image is credited to 
Nicéphore Niépce (the spelling with the é in  Niépce is strange even in 
France we would simply write Niepce). However, Niépce did not disclose 
anything and it is known that before he produced in 1826 (the actual 
date is unknown) a landscape shot "view at le Gras" on a bitumen plate 
(8 hours of exposure in day light ; the image is now at the University 
of Texas), he was successful producing contact prints of old engravings 
in 1825.

One of those early bitumen contact prints belonged to private 
collectors, Marie-Thérèse & André Jammes, and was sold at an auction by 
Sotheby's in Paris in March 2002 ; the image can be seen here:
http://www.photographie.com/magazine/publication/101579/520/DSCN1904.jpg
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/e/eb/Nic%C3%A9phore_Ni%C
3%A9pce_Oldest_Photograph_1825.jpg/200px-Nic%C3%A9phore_Ni%C3%A9pce_Oldest_P
hotograph_1825.jpg
in this article
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_photography

I do not think that Niépce ever issued a patent, he relied only on 
secret know-how. Keeping secret know-how brings us back to corporations 
of craftsmen in the middel-ages, but actually in the modern industry, 
many manufacturing processes are not patented and kept secret.

Daguerre started to "co-operate" with Niépce in 1926. Actually Daguerre 
tried to get as many technical informations he could from Niépce but 
Niépce was very reluctant.
Eventually after Niépce's death in 1833 Daguerre accepted to disclose 
the daguerréotype process, completely different from the bitumen 
process, to the French Academy of Sciences in 1839.
The negociations with the French State involved a life time pension for 
Daguerre in exchange with the public disclosure of the daguerréotype 
process with  no patent and no royalties on the process itself.
It is fascinating to see how fast the daguerréotype process spread to 
the world after 1839.
The neg/pos process is credited to Fox Talbot in 1840 ; according to the 
French wiki page, Fox Talbot was convinced to be the true inventor of 
photopgraphy. He actually took a patent on his calotype process.
see here for details http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Fox_Talbot

--

Emmanuel


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