Image: Velvet Underground WLWH publicity photo

Description: A publicity photo of the American rock band The Velvet Underground circa 1968, promoting their second album White Light/White Heat. The band members are positioned around a copy of the album, with the text of the title visible against a black background. From left to right: Lou Reed, Sterling Morrison, John Cale, and Maureen Tucker.
Title: Velvet Underground WLWH publicity photo
Credit: Original source: Publicity photo circulated to press by MGM Records/Verve Immediate source: A scan accompanied "Overloaded: The Story of White Light/White Heat by David Fricke at Mojo. This scan crops out the publicity photo information/credits; an alternate, lower resolution version can be found on page 25 of The Velvet Underground Handbook (via the Internet Archive). Also compare this publicity photo from the same session, also found in the Mojo article, which does include the publicity photo info.
Author: Photographer unknown. Published by Verve Records, at that time a subsidiary of MGM Records.
Permission: No permission required for the following reasons: First, the photo is a mechanical scan/photocopy of the original cover and does not qualify for independent copyright protection. Second, the portrait was first published prior to 1978 without a valid copyright notice. 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 have been published without notice and is not eligible for copyright protection.
Usage Terms: Public domain
License: Public domain
Attribution Required?: No