I see your Picture Maker stations all over. Walmart, CVS, many other places. Today I walked into CVS and say, what I believe, was inaccurate documentation (It quoted the length of a copyright for 50 years, unless the art was for work, in which case it was 75 to 100, which has changed recently.) First, if you're going to have a helpful guide to copyright, it's (a) important that it be up to date, and (b) have a date of issue on it so you employees (or nit-pickers on copyright law such as I) can see the length that poster has been up there.

The sales assistant who helped me really couldn't do more than point at the sign and say "well, it's fairly recent", which is unacceptable to something as important as copyright - especially if you provide good/service that might allow a user to break copyright law. Wherever these things are installed, sales associates should be able to ask a variety of questions, such as the following:

• So, can I copy a picture I took?
• How do I obtain copyright permissions? What legal forms do I have to fill out, and who do I have to present them too in order to legally use this machine?
• Can I make a copy of this Mickey Mouse greeting card?
• Can I copy this picture I took of a Mickey Mouse greeting card?
• If I took a picture of this Mickey Mouse greeting card with my film camera, would you develop the picture? How is this machine different from that process, in respect to the law?
• What is the penalty for breaking copyright laws?
• How up to date is your copyright information, and can you give me references to perhaps more current sources of information, or advise me who I should contact?
• Who is blame here for copyright infringement - you, for providing me with inaccurate documentation, and/or services that allow me to copy items, or me, for doing the actual act?

Copyright is an extraordinarily important part of the society, and it's important to keep your documentation up to date, while still understandable. Sales associates should be able to readily answer the above questions, along with countless others, without blinking. If you provide a service that allows people to potentially "share" copyrighted material illegally, how is that any different from (the former) Napster, Kazza, or any other P2P apps? Seems like you could have a potential court-case on your hands.

A concerned customer, _Ryan Wilcox

More Information on US Copyright:

US Copyright Website

US Copyright Basics

Length of US copyright