Karloff Frankenstein image -- answer from Universal Pictures

[Ekko]

Hi

Regarding my recent topic on the Karloff/Frankenstein image, I emailed Universal Pictures about the use of this photo that Wikipaedia claims is in the public domain -- Link:

www.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Frankenstein%27s_monster_(Boris_Karloff).jpg

(You may have to cut and paste this addess into tour browser)

This is the reply I got:

"This image is based on the Karloff rendition of the character so the rights are held by Universal."

This reply would seem to suggest that *any* photo of the Karloff monster is in the copyright control of Universal -- regardless of the kind of (copyright law) reasoning applied by Wikipeadia in the above link.

So I want to write back to clarify their reasoning on this. But I thought I'd ask for opinions on what specifically I should ask so as to get a meaningful reply.