Appendix B. Copyright, Licensing, and Permissions

As disclosed in his last will and testament (see Part I, Death, “Last Will and Testament”), Einstein left his literary estate and all rights to it to the Hebrew University of Jerusalem (HUJI). The university therefore owns the copyright to Einstein’s writings, and those wishing to quote him in any way that is beyond “fair use” as defined by copyright law must obtain permission to do so. In 2025, that is, seventy years after his death, his writings will be in the public domain according to current U.S. Copyright law Sec. 302(a).

In recent years, the question of the use of his “image” for profit has been debated. The HUJI has maintained its own Einstein’s image as well as his writings. In 2012, a California federal judge dismissed a lawsuit filed by HUJI against General Motors (GM) for using a licensed but altered photograph of Einstein in an advertisement in 2009, ruling that, for a variety of legal reasons, Einstein’s “publicity rights” (use of his image) had fallen into the public domain fifty years after his death. Those interested in the details of the case or how it might apply to their own projects can read about it online at “Intellectual Property Law: Einstein Rights of Publicity” by Rebeccah Gan. Vol. 31, no. 1 (January–February 2014) at http://americanbar.org/publications/gp_solo/2014/january-february/intellectual_property_law_einsteins_rights_publicity.html; and “Einstein Publicity Rights Deemed Expired by California Federal Court” by Nancy D. Wolff and Nicholas J. Tariff. Posted in Legal Blog, Litigation, Trademarks, and Brands, October 17, 2012 at http://cdas.com/einstein-publicity-rights-deemed-expired-by-california-federal-court/.

For use of Einstein’s writings, including texts, such as letters he did not originally write for publication, individuals or institutions should contact the Einstein Archives at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem at http://albert-einstein.org. They will advise the user if HUJI or Princeton University Press (PUP) owns the rights to the material he or she wants to use. In general, PUP owns rights to all writings it published after 1971. A publications agreement between HUJI and PUP from that year signed over to PUP the first rights to publish his writings, which in effect means the writings in The Collected Papers of Albert Einstein published to date, and any spinoffs therefrom (for example, the Einstein-Marić Love Letters). HUJI itself is allowed to publish or allow third parties to publish or re-publish any texts that had already been published before 1971.

For photographs, users can go to a variety of sources to obtain photographs, all of them now easily found on the Internet. Among these are the American Institute of Physics in Maryland, the Caltech archives in Pasadena, HUJI/Albert Einstein Archives in Jerusalem, the Leo Baeck Institute in New York, the Lotte Jacobi Collection at the University of New Hampshire, Ullstein Photo in Berlin, and other photo archives found online, including Corbis and its subsidiary, GreenLight. These institutions and agencies will provide photographic scans for a fee (not all of them charge the same fee), but the photographer or his or her heirs, if known, must be contacted for permission (and any additional fees) to use the photos in case they are still protected by copyright laws not covered by the ruling discussed above. A good-faith effort, leaving a paper trail, must be made to find copyright owners. The providers of the photographic scans are not necessarily also the copyright holders, though sometimes they also represent the photographers or have information about them. In some cases, the photographers’ copyrights may have expired.

Individuals and institutions do not need the permission of Corbis or its subsidiaries, or of the HUJI/Albert Einstein Archives or Princeton University Press, to use photographs of Einstein for noncommercial and educational, scientific, academic, and documentary publications. If a prospective user is in doubt about whether a particular project qualifies, it is advisable to seek legal advice or contact HUJI.

For commercial use and licensing of Einstein paraphernalia and photographs, entrepreneurs and others should obtain legal advice to see if their proposed use falls under the legal ruling discussed above. At the time of this writing, the GreenLight agency controls licensing rights for Einstein’s image. See greenlightrights.com.