Reference pics and copyright

[Dosadi]

Pardon me if anyone has already covered this....
Did you know that a drawing or painting from a copyrighted photo is considered by law a derivitave work and therefore entitles the original photographer to compensation? So if you plan to use some one elses reference for a work thats going to get out of your sketchbook and be shown to anyone get permission first!
You may be covered under fair use in an academic setting, but if you have portfolio pieces, or commisioned pieces from copyrighted reference beware.

[K-10]

Those copyright laws are getting wierder and wierder but for good or wors, I don't know

[Dosadi]

I don't know how it is in Denmark. But if they subscribe to the Berne convention the laws should be similar to those in the USA.

[egerie]

Did someone use your pictures for reference ? Just curious... :)

[K-10]

Originally posted by K-10
Those copyright laws are getting wierder and wierder but for good or wors, I don't know

I don't know eather, only lived here for 5 months and haven't checked it.
But in Iceland, where i come from the authorities don't give a rat's arse about it unless they can make some money out of it, like raiseing the price of empty cd's to a ridiculous figure.
I think it is like this in all of scandinavia (exept from the price bit, I think)

[Dosadi]

egerie,
No someone didn't use one of my pictures, but I use other people's for reference all the time. I'm taking a design class where we just spent 6 weeks covering copyrights. Our instructor told us a story of a guy who released a calendar of paintings of Harley-Davidsons. Well one of the photographers who's photo he painted from sued him and won. The photographer won all the $ from the calendars
(even though his photo was one of many) plus damages and attorney's fees. I for one don't want to end up in that situation!
Mainly with the rash of people's concept work being stolen lately I wanted to bring up the subject of how often we as artists might unknowingly infringe on other people's copyrights.

k-10,
The authorities everywhere really don't care what you do, but the people who own the copyrights do. They are the one's who will sue.

[fish~]

to what degree of simliarites does this cover..Ill often read through comic books and such to get a directional sceme..ie ill look at the direction of the body vrs/ light or major elemnts and such, and look for one that i can mutate into the idea im trying to convey. ..but if you look at the pictures next to each other the only thing remotely similar is the direction of major elements. subject matter and pallett are my own . ie a circlurular background object with a "s" curve forground object.
my favorite of these types of references are asian water color paintings.

course i draw for fun so it don't much matter,

[paper slayer]

You use references to learn from. When you learned enough you make your own picture.

Don´t copy a picture. Use several references on the same subject to avoid this. Change lighting, perspective, composition, colorscheme.

If you anyway must use a photo with only minor changes. Ask. Contact the photographer and work something out. I'm sure that calender guy would have saved himself lot of trouble if he done that.

[Dosadi]

The test that the courts will use is refferred to as the "man on the street". If your average Joe can look at the two and say "yeah, they are the same" then you can get popped. They will also look at the substantiality. Did you use a tiny flower from the background that only makes up %5 of your version or did you use the main figure and focal point of the original and then also make that your focal point.
The Graphic Artist's Guild Handbook covers a lot of this in more detail. It also has pricing guidelines which is pretty helpful.

[BluePencilArtist]

Needs more informations of Copyrighted Laws.
Here is links --> http://www.loc.gov/copyright/

I would do some resource of copyrights before get my ass trouble in federal law.....