Discussion:
What is the name of your state? NY
I'm thinking of starting an educational yet for profit business using famous artwork images to get children interested in art. Is there any way to tell absolutely if a work is in the public domain? Also, would it be feasible to try to contact copyright holders/museums to try and secure copyright permission, or would the cost be prohibitive?
Thanks!
Answer:
What is the name of your state? NY
I'm thinking of starting an educational yet for profit business using famous artwork images to get children interested in art. Is there any way to tell absolutely if a work is in the public domain? Also, would it be feasible to try to contact copyright holders/museums to try and secure copyright permission, or would the cost be prohibitive?
Thanks! The only way to tell for sure if a piece of art is in the public domain is if it was created before 1923 -- anything else is potentially still covered by copyright.
You could contact the museums and see if they know if something is public domain or not, and who to contact for permission to use an image of a copyrighted artwork. But there is no central database that you can look up to see if something is covered by copyright.