The photo was published several times in many newspapers between 1951-52 with no copyright notice at all (neither for the photo in particular, nor for the newspaper as a whole). For example:
The original wirephoto was published in 1951, without a copyright notice. As such, the opportunity for copyright protection on the photo was forfeited and it entered the public domain.
Copyright was also forfeited per section 9 of the Copyright Act of 1909, which required that notice of copyright be affixed to every published copy.
No instances were found of the photo published with its own copyright notice, indicating that the photo was distributed to newspapers without a copyright notice, and there is no evidence of any requirement imposed on newspapers by INS to publish the photo with copyright notice.
The Library of Congress writes: "In an attempt to determine if International News Photos registered any copyrights and if those copyrights were renewed, Specialists in the Prints and Photographs Division of the Library of Congress searched the Copyright Office files. It was found that only a few images were registered for copyright and those copyrights were not renewed."
The image has been cropped to match the original release in newspapers, as the
picture in full (which is a wider shot of Einstein with Frank and Marie Aydelotte) may still be copyrighted by the Sasse state and/or INS/United Press Photos successors which is AFP.
