All Your Stonehenge Photos Are Belong To England

An anonymous reader writes "English Heritage, the organization that runs and manages various historical sites in the UK, such as Stonehenge, has apparently sent letters to various photo sharing and stock photo sites claiming that any photo of Stonehenge that is being sold violates its rights, and only English Heritage can get commercial benefit from such photos. In fact, they're asking for all money made from such photos, stating: 'all commercial interest to sell images must be directed to English Heritage.' As one recipient noted, this seems odd, given that English Heritage has only managed Stonehenge 'for 27 of the monument's 4,500 year old history.'"

First Henge

[Anonymous Coward]

Brought to you by the aliens who built it.

Carhenge

[tag]

Fine. I'll use pictures of Carhenge [carhenge.com] instead.

Re:First Henge

[Anonymous Coward]

Well if they get news of this outrage they may well come and take it back leaving English Heritage unhenged in addition to unhinged.

A disguised way to sue Microsoft?

[Dogbertius]

C:\WINDOWS\Web\Wallpaper\Stonehenge.jpg

Need I say more?

Re:Ruining photography

[Sylak]

As a Theatre Lighting Designer, i ask how i too can claim copyright on a lighting design and defeat a longstanding tradition which says i am unable to copyright anything but my paperwork.

This is Spinal Tap

[Lord_of_the_nerf]

I suppose they'll want a percentage from sales of Smell the Glove too.

4500 years?

[T Murphy]

How did they manage to build it by 2500 BC? I usually don't manage to finish it until 2000BC... they must have had a nearby source of marble I wasn't aware of.

Re:First Henge

[icannotthinkofaname]

And they built it for good reason, too. Have you seen what they put under that place-marker? There's a prison whose sole purpose is to absolutely contain the most feared creature in the universe.

Er, so said the British TV show, anyway.

In other news...

[srussia]

The United States Department of State is claiming copyright on all images of the world as "it been their responsibility for the last 27 of the planet's 6,000 year old history."

Good Reply To The Letters.....

[IHC Navistar]

Dear Sir/Madam, We will gladly remove the photographs of Stonehenge that you have asked us to remove. However, we require that you provide us with written, notarized documentation detailing: 1. Ownership or controlling interest in Stonehenge by your organization, 2. Transfer of ownership to your organization by the original creator(s) of the work, and, 3. That the work was, in fact, created by those that transferred ownership to your organization. Additionally, we would like to take this letter as an opportunity to inform you that we have awarded your organization with lifetime membership in our "Good Luck With That" club, which is an exclusive organization of groups displaying exceptional confidence in their legal endeavors. Sincerely, Howard, Fine, and Howard Attorneys-At-Law

Re:Carhenge

[dominious]

there exists a Carhenge?! I can see this 1000 years later:

tourist 1: hmm, they must have been using this wheel to calculate the time of sunrise or something...
tourist 2: indeed, amazing technology they had. I wonder what these numbers show in front of the "main" seat. Must be some kind of a galactic compass!
tourist 1: woah...

Re:Well...

[Chrisq]

Druidism has just been recognized as a religion in the UK [bbc.co.uk], wouldn't they have some ground to claim "intellectual property" on Stonehenge?

Or maybe it will go the other way round and English Heritage will start taking all the money from collection boxes in St Pauls Cathedral, York Minster, etc - but once a year 'allow Christians "special access" for a religious ceremony.

Re:How is our children learning...

[History's Coming To]

Not entirely accurate - there was a spat between the band and the local council at the Glastonbury festival a few years back because the council were concerned that Stonehenge was more associated with Spinal Tap than it was with Stonehenge. In the end (as pointed out above) it was settled on the grounds that Spinal Tap's copyright is still in force while Stonehenge's had run out years ago.

Re:First Henge

[gtall]

"There's a prison whose sole purpose is to absolutely contain the most feared creature in the universe."

I hardly think we need to bring Jimmy Carter into this.

Re:Carhenge

[Abstrackt]

It's like a car analogy.

Re:First Henge

[Aeros]

I thought Chevy Chase knocked this thing down in European Vacation?

Re:We win, we lose

[SirGarlon]

Assuming that people cannot become more stupid, but the rules can become more stupid

That is a wildly optimistic assumption. Both people and rules have repeatedly demonstrated an unlimited potential for stupidity. There is no reason to think either have bottomed out yet.

what about parody photos?

[TheGratefulNet]

wonder if they'll come after me for this one:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/linux-works/140536377/ [flickr.com]

yes, it was a slow day in the hardware lab and I felt inspired at the time. I know that if anyone will 'get' what those are, its the slash crowd.