The Talking Machine Forum — For All Antique Phonographs & Recordings

Here is a link to the old TMF Label Gallery & Guide. Even though it is static information and not worked on anymore it may still be an interesting and helpful resource for some.

Andreas

Thank you! I never knew it existed.

Fran

shoulnt this forum have its own label archive i know many of the forumers will help to build it up
i have many hundreds of labels in my foto archive from many sourses but mainly ebay
the foto's of labels must have some criteria
1 it must be a clear foto and readble right down to the numbering
2 for cylinders top view is best for the text or a foto of the lid or slip and side views for the box

many labels differ so slightly that you don't even notice it with the edison gold moulded cyl boxes there are many minute differences
with berliner records it depends on where it was made the euro ones have the writing angel also there are marks that differ from disc to disc like stars, crosses, and even doodles drawn by either the artists or tecnicians

An archive must be built up from photos of which you own the property and copyright. The legal owner shall at least be asked for permission. It is not acceptable when images are shown without provenance. Because of the lack of moral standards, I often use watermarks. You won't find a "stolen" photo from an internet source in the public space of the German gramophone forum.

In the USA, there is a court case called Bridgemen v. Corel which established that photographs taken of public domain items are considered "slavish copying", and as such, they lack originality. This means that the resulting photographs are not copyrightable.

In other words, pics of the labels of any pre-1923 record (and many later records) cannot be copyrighted, regardless of the skill required to take them, and can therefore be freely distributed and published, at least in the USA.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bridgeman_ ... Corel_Corp.

There are of course always technicalities that go beyond the scope of a forum comment. Also, as noted in the Wiki article, things may or may not be different in the EU. And again, I'm not a lawyer, this is not legal advice, etc.

Links to 78rpm Record Label sites:

The 78rpm Record Home Page - Label Pictures
Majestic Record - 78rpm Record Labels

All of the label scans currently on the TMF Label Gallery & Guide were from John (Neophone)’s collection.

Once my life is a little less hectic, perhaps if other people want to contribute their own (preferrably scans; photos do not work as well), I will either set up a way for them to upload them, or I will curate.