Discussion:
What is the name of your state?What is the name of your state?What is the name of your state?What is the name of your state? nevada
I am starting a new biz making a product and putting pictures/images on the product to sell. My questions are many. I have been trying to read through as many threads on this subject as I thought helpful, but I'm still loaded with questions. Thanks in advance for your help.
-If I purchase a book that is copyrighted, can I tear out a page and use that photo for one of my products? Do I need to give copyright info? For example, can I use a vintage photograph of Everest or San Fran on my product that came from a purchased book? From what I understand, this falls in the First Sale doctrine, where I purchase the book by retail and then can sell it from there? Please advise. Or does this only apply by reselling the whole book, not just indiv. pages from it? Can I use one of these photos, frame it, and sell it?
-Can I use general photos of a geographical location (San Francisco) from a realtor's magazine?
-Can I use photos, images, headlines, articles, covers, etc. from any published newspaper or magazine on my products? I have seen a product recently that has 2 covers from 2 TV guide magazines on it, and that prompted this question.
-Please verify that if I purchase a poster/print from a company and then use it on my product, this is legal. What boundaries are there?
-If a company doesn't have any copyright ownership on a poster/print, do I have any room to reproduce it in any way and use that on my product once I purchase that poster/print?
-If a vintage postcard does not have any copyright to it, do I have any rights to reproduce in any way or may I only used purchase copies to put on my product? The vintage postcards that I am interested in are illustrations, and none indicate any author or copyright.
-When does a copyrighted piece of work (a vintage photo of Everest) become a derivative work such that it is not okay to use?
-General question--One company that I'm interested in buying some posters from says that it does not have copyright ownership of anything on it's site. How, then, does that company have rights to print so many copies for resale? Seems mind-boggling to me.
Thanks
Answer:
-If I purchase a book that is copyrighted, can I tear out a page and use that photo for one of my products? Do I need to give copyright info? For example, can I use a vintage photograph of Everest or San Fran on my product that came from a purchased book? From what I understand, this falls in the First Sale doctrine, where I purchase the book by retail and then can sell it from there? Please advise. Or does this only apply by reselling the whole book, not just indiv. pages from it? Can I use one of these photos, frame it, and sell it? Well, you certainly cannot reproduce the pictures in any way, that's for sure, unless you have permission from the copyright holder or the picture is in the public domain. As far as buying a book and selling the pages individually, or incorporating one page into your product, thats probably okay -- but then you'd have to buy a copy of the book to tear the page out of for each and every product you sold, so I hope you are making a good profit!
-Can I use general photos of a geographical location (San Francisco) from a realtor's magazine? Only if you have permission from the copyright owners, or are going to buy a copy of the magazine for each and every photo you use.
-Can I use photos, images, headlines, articles, covers, etc. from any published newspaper or magazine on my products? I have seen a product recently that has 2 covers from 2 TV guide magazines on it, and that prompted this question. Again, if you buy one of what you are using for each image, then yeah. You may need to be careful how you market the final product, so that you don't violate any trademark laws.
-If a vintage postcard does not have any copyright to it, do I have any rights to reproduce in any way or may I only used purchase copies to put on my product? The vintage postcards that I am interested in are illustrations, and none indicate any author or copyright. If the image was originally published in the U.S. prior to 1923, then you can freely reproduce it. If it was published later, or not first published in the U.S., then it may still be covered by copyright. Unfortunately, there is currently no easy way to determine if something is or is not covered by copyright -- it will take some detective work, and in the end, you may just have to weigh the risks.
-If a company doesn't have any copyright ownership on a poster/print, do I have any room to reproduce it in any way and use that on my product once I purchase that poster/print? Probably not. Again, if the print is a copy of a pre-1923 original, then you can reproduce it, or if the work is otherwise in the public domain, you can reproduce it -- but copyright notices are NOT required. They were required at one time, but they are no longer required. Just because there is no copyright notice does NOT mean that the poster is not covered by a copyright, and you cannot reproduce copyrighted materials without permission.
-Please verify that if I purchase a poster/print from a company and then use it on my product, this is legal. What boundaries are there? You can't reproduce the print, for one thing. Other than that, you can do with it what you want. Depending on what the print is, you may need to consider trademark issues.
-When does a copyrighted piece of work (a vintage photo of Everest) become a derivative work such that it is not okay to use? A derivative work requires "sufficient transformation" -- of course, what exactly is "sufficient transformation" is a question for the courts. Typically, "mechanical" transformation -- resizing, cropping, restoring, colorization (when the colorization is to real, or nearly-real, colors), making a sepia-tone print, etc. -- are not the kind of "creative" transformations that would result in a creative work.
Taking that photo of Everest and superimposing a naked cowboy or something would likely be sufficiently creative and transformative to become a derivative work.
Whether or not taking a picture and sticking it to something else constitutes a derivative work is not totally cut-and-dried, but more than likely simply laminating a picture unchanged onto something else would be insufficient to create a derivative work.
-General question--One company that I'm interested in buying some posters from says that it does not have copyright ownership of anything on it's site. How, then, does that company have rights to print so many copies for resale? Seems mind-boggling to me. Anyone can sell posters that they lawfully purchased from someone else -- most likely this poster company buys from a manufacturer or wholesaler, and it is the manufacturer that either owns the copyrights or manufactures these posters under license from the copyright owner. Or the poster company may be making posters themselves -- you don't need to own the copyright to have a license (the right) to reproduce the work and print and sell posters.
Of course, if all they have is a right to reproduce and print the posters, they probably don't have the right to give YOU the right to reproduce the posters or create derivative works from the posters...
Finally, it's possible that the poster guy is violating copyrights, and hasn't gotten caught yet. Or maybe all of his subjects are public domain, and he doesn't need permission. Who knows.
Answer:
state: Nevada
In response to my prior questions (below), I would like to use some photos from realtor's magazines that are free. The magazines are compilations from many realtor companies and multiple realtors within those companies. It was suggested that I buy a separate copy of the magazine for each and every different photo that I would like to use, but they are not for sale...do I have rights to use these photos even if I don't/can't pay for the magazine? The photos that I am interested in are general geographic location photos, not photos of people or houses.
Answer:
state: Nevada
In response to my prior questions (below), I would like to use some photos from realtor's magazines that are free. The magazines are compilations from many realtor companies and multiple realtors within those companies. It was suggested that I buy a separate copy of the magazine for each and every different photo that I would like to use, but they are not for sale...do I have rights to use these photos even if I don't/can't pay for the magazine? The photos that I am interested in are general geographic location photos, not photos of people or houses. I don't know that there is much caselaw on this specific factual situation. The "first sale" doctrine specifies the that once a first retail sale is made, the rights holder can no longer control that particular copy of the object. But if there is no "first retail sale," it's hard to say whether or not the first sale doctrine applies.
Further, I would guess that if you went out and took a whole stack of real estate magazines, even though they are given out free, that could be seen as stealing.
Why can't you just find a picture you like and take a license, so you don't have to worry about all of this? There are numerousd internet sites that provide images along with licenses -- maybe you could go that route.