The Artful Jurist

I'm still scratching my head a bit over this one. Perhaps someone can offer a little illumination...

The Little Theatre of Alexandria (Virginia) is going to be presenting Moises Kaufman's play, Gross Indecency: The Three Trials of Oscar Wilde." As part of the show's publicity, the theater wanted to use a rather famous photograph of Wilde that was taken of him in the latter part of the 19th Century. The age of the photo alone indicates that the copyright on that photo has long since expired. However, the theater had to pay hundreds of dollars to use the photo in the background of its posters and fliers.

Wilde's been dead more than a hundred years. And, although I can't claim to be an authority on the laws of the United Kingdom, my guess is any right of publicity his descendants held has also expired. So who still gets to cash in on this photo and under the authority of what law? Is it trademark law? Does using the photo as part of a commercial advertisement constitute the creation of a "logo" that requires special permission?

I'm just curious.