Image: Photo portrait of Harper Lee (To Kill a Mockingbird dust jacket, 1960)

Description: Truman Capote's photo portrait of Harper Lee from the back cover of the first-edition dust jacket for Lee's novel To Kill a Mockingbird.
Title: Photo portrait of Harper Lee (To Kill a Mockingbird dust jacket, 1960)
Credit: Scan of the image from "More than Five Decades After To Kill a Mockingbird, Harper Lee Will Publish a Second Novel" at Vogue (direct link to jpg). Retouched by uploader.
Author: Photo credited to Truman Capote.
Permission: No permission is required. First, the photo is a mechanical scan/photocopy of the original cover and does not qualify for independent copyright protection. Second, the photo was first published prior to 1978 without a valid copyright notice. To Kill a Mockingbird was first published in 1960; the hardcover book itself carried a copyright notice, so its contents remain copyrighted. However, the first-edition dust jacket did not carry a separate copyright notice. The photo on the back did not have a copyright notice of its own, either. According to The Compendium of U.S. Copyright Office Practices: Chapter 2200, § 2207.1(C) at p. 15:"A notice of copyright on the dust jacket of a book is not an acceptable notice for the book, because the dust jacket is not permanently attached to the book. Likewise, a notice appearing in a book is not an acceptable notice for the dust jacket or any material appearing on that dust jacket, even if the book refers to the jacket or material appearing on the jacket."Numerous sources can be used to verify the dust jacket's (and the photo's) lack of a copyright notice: Adrienne Raptis's "To Kill a Mockingbird First Edition Issue Points" at Raptis Rare Books – a guide to identifying first editions of the book To Kill a Mockingbird at the Gianakos-Safos Collection – a collection of images of a first edition, which together show the dust jacket in its entirety. Listing at Whitmore Rare Books Listing at Peter Harrington (with complete scan) Eleven Classic Covers of Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird at Flashbak – first image is a full scan of the dust jacket.And so on. Keep in mind that the pre-1989 requirements for copyright notice were highly formalistic and, other than a few enumerated exceptions, required these three elements: "The symbol © or the word 'Copyright' or the abbreviation 'Copr.' or an acceptable variant such as "(c)"; "The year of first publication for the work"; and "The name of the copyright owner, or an abbreviation by which the name can be recognized, or a generally known alternative designation of the owner." If just one of these elements is omitted, the work is deemed to be published without notice and is not eligible for copyright protection. Neither the year "1960" nor a copyright symbol (or any acceptable variant) appear anywhere on the dust jacket. Credits like "Truman Capote" underneath the photo, "Jacket design by Shirley Smith" do not meet the requirements, nor do the identifications of the publisher and author.
Usage Terms: Public domain
License: Public domain
Attribution Required?: No