File:RoyalGrammarSchoolNewcastle1890.jpg

Summary
The exterior of the Royal Grammar School, Rye Hill, Elswick, circa 1890.

This picture is a scan of an original photograph found amongst my late father's papers, which I now own. A copy of the same photograph is posted at http://www.newcastle.gov.uk/tlt/photo/008794.htm and copyright is claimed without supporting evidence by Newcastle City Council. (NB the Newcastle City Council site seems to use a CMS that places a copyright notice on everything, regardless of origin. There are several images on that site for which their claim to copyright is clearly and obviously spurious.)

Licensing
I believe that I am the copyright holder since an original photograph was left to me, and I hereby release the picture into the public domain.

The copyright claim by Newcastle Council is spurious, as are many other claims on their site for works clearly out of copyright. The copy on their website is of lower quality and they admit that the picture's origin and photographer are 'unknown'. The photographer was a member of my family.

This photograph is one of many old photographs that were lent by my family to Beamish museum to be 'copied for posterity', the clear understanding being that they were going into the public domain. The originals were returned. I believe the Newcastle Council copy was derived from this source. I cannot see how else they would obtain it, except from Beamish.

Furthermore it remains to be seen if the Council do in fact claim copyright. Every image on their website is blindly tagged 'copyright' and this may simply be an artifact of a CMS or an over-enthusiastic web designer.

I am happy to enter into dialogue with the Council if they wish and let them have sight of my original copy.