Copyright Aid

Good morning All

Sorry to be back so soon! I’ve had a quick trawl through the searches and can’t find this (although I’m sure it must have come up before, so would be grateful if I could be pointed in the right direction, please).

I have discovered the joys of special effects filters for pictures and artwork on my PC, both in the form of the built-in Word facility on my Mac (which is part of the images ‘toolbox’) and in the form of apps (like ’Prisma’). They are fab and mean that I can turn my own rather unimaginative photography or daubs into amazing works in the style of famous artists or give them a grainy texture or a splodgy arty watercolour wash, thus appearing to have more talent than I actually have. Hoorah and so far so good!

However, other than for my own amusement and to (presumably?) share with friends online, I was wondering how far I can go with the use of said images. Are they for personal use only? Can I use them as part of a piece of my own artwork, which would obviously mean going public with them? I’m thinking of filtering Victorian postcard figures and turning them into splashy modern art-type images for use on an embroidery. I have discovered the copyright notes on Prisma, but can’t make head nor tail of them. Please help!

Sorry again for my sudden and early reappearance on the forum, and thank you so much for anything that might point me in the right direction and prevent me from being clapped in irons.

Best regards

Sally

Hi Sally,

No need to apologise - that's what the forums are for.

You don't need to worry about the Prisma terms and conditions*. You can freely use that and other similar apps or programs to produce your own works which, generally speaking, will be protected by copyright and you will be the owner of that copyright. Firstly this will be the case if the original image was created by you, and secondly because you will have made the choices over which filters to use, and to what extent. This latter bit is covered by section 9(3) of the CDPA.

However you do need to take care when using someone else's work as your source image. If the work is still protected by copyright and you wished to 'filter' it, this would amount to adaptation - something which a copyright owner has to authorise. The second issue with using images which are still covered by copyright is the risk that your changes could amount to derogatory treatment which would be counter to the original artist/photographer's moral rights. You should be fine sticking with Victorian era images.

* However you do need to understand that in using Prisma's services, you are granting the company a wide-ranging licence to use etc your finished image, if you store it or share it using their services. This is the relevant part of the terms and conditions which you will be agreeing to: "You grant Prisma a perpetual, irrevocable, nonexclusive, royalty-free, worldwide, fully-paid, transferable sub-licensable license to use, reproduce, modify, adapt, publish, translate, create derivative works from, distribute, publicly perform and display your User Content and any name, username or likeness provided in connection with your User Content in all media formats and channels now known or later developed, without compensation to you. When you post or otherwise share User Content on or through our Services, you understand that your User Content and any associated information (such as your [username], location or profile photo) will be visible to the public."

Hi Andy

Thank you so much for your speedy and knowledgeable reply, as always.

I had been pondering over this for a while as, on the one hand, it would seem odd to give one access to a tool that one couldn’t use publicly but, on the other, it seems to be ‘cheating’ (and using someone else’s design talent, albeit technological) to such an extraordinary extent that it didn’t seem likely to be allowable!

I shall plough on with my Victorian postcards and will now appear to be a positive whizz on the art front!

Very best and huge thanks

Sally

Hi Sally,

The skill and creativity of software engineers is recognised in the fact that software is protected by copyright just like a work of literature. However once in the hands of the user, software is just a tool, much like the artist's paintbrush or the writer's pen (or word processor!). How you use a tool is your creative decision.

The problem we face in the not too distant future is what, if any, copyright protection we should afford to works entirely created by artificial intelligence. It seems unlikely that section 9(3) which I quoted in my earlier reply will continue to apply when there is no human intervention. Despite it being in the news a lot, true artificial intelligence is not yet here when it comes to artistic works (see here for an example of a step in that direction).