Discussion:
[I personally reside in Rhode Island, go to college in New York, and the work is to be published by a New York company.]
I found several images online that, after moderate modifcation [clearly not the original image, but still clearly recognizable as from that image] I could use as a cover for a fictional text that I intend to have a highly limited run, mostly for personal purposes [under 10 copies].
However, all of the images lack any information regarding the original artist despite inquiries to the siteholders and various other areas where people who may know who created the image. There is no direct note of copywrite (either the logo or the word itself, nor any mark of an artist.
What sort of potential legal quagmire am I stepping into with this, and do you have any suggestions? Thank you.
Answer:
[I personally reside in Rhode Island, go to college in New York, and the work is to be published by a New York company.]
I found several images online that, after moderate modifcation [clearly not the original image, but still clearly recognizable as from that image] I could use as a cover for a fictional text that I intend to have a highly limited run, mostly for personal purposes [under 10 copies].
However, all of the images lack any information regarding the original artist despite inquiries to the siteholders and various other areas where people who may know who created the image. There is no direct note of copywrite (either the logo or the word itself, nor any mark of an artist.
What sort of potential legal quagmire am I stepping into with this, and do you have any suggestions? Thank you. Well, if the original image was not yours, and you did not have permission to use the image, then you have violated the creator's copyright in the image. The fact that you modified the image is irrelevant; only the copyright holder can authorize the creation of a "derivative work." Further, the lack of a copyright symbol or any other identifying mark is also irrelevant; works no longer require any identifying marks in the U.S. (or most any other country either, for that matter).Because copyright terms are so long these days, the work is almost certainly still covered by copyright, unless it was originally published prior to 1923.
However, from a practical standpoint, if all you are doing is making a small "vanity" run of books, and you don't intent to circulate or sell the books, then whether or not you are infringing someone else's copyright is likely irrelevant, because who is ever going to know? If you do plan on distributing or selling the books, then you need to decide whether its better for you to find a new image to use for the cover, or risk a copyright infreingement suit.